Perfect Practice

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Elena Villanueva on her journey from chiropractic to holistic health practitioner. She shares some of her origin and the health crisis that cost her three sports medicine centers and her home before she recovered. Listen to learn more about the Holistic Health practices of Dr. Elena Villanueva.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:01] Sachin introduces today’s guest, Dr. Elena Villanueva. Dr. Elena runs an amazing practice that brings the best of ancient wisdom and modern science together to help people have their deepest healing and feel amazing even when all other things have failed.

 

[1:42] ModernHolisticHealth.com is where you can learn more about her work.

 

[1:49] Sachin will ask Dr. Elena to unpack her recipe for growth, persistence, and success, and share with us how we can build a practice that we love, that gets amazing outcomes, and that has an awesome impact in the community, and build an amazing team that does great work.

 

[2:33] Sachin welcomes Dr. Elena to Perfect Practice.

 

[3:04] Dr. Elena’s biggest challenge has keeping her personal life and lifestyle as her “number one.” She starts working and she can just go, go, go, like a racecar. Before you know it, the wheels are coming off the car because she put herself on the back burner.

 

[3:51] Her biggest rewards have been when she sat down and took time to get right with herself, reprioritize her values, and get a deeper understanding of how she can have longevity in this type of work.

 

[4:24] Dr. Elena aspired to be in the health field from the time she was six or seven years old. Her stepfather was a surgeon. Her uncle is a surgeon. All her uncles are in the medical field. She wanted to be like them, helping people, and making a difference.

 

[4:49] In her pre-teens, Elena started going to the clinic with her dad, getting patients ready to be seen. As a teenager, she was with him in his plane, flying to border towns to do charity cataract surgeries for the farmers. She helped him in the surgery room.

 

[5:39] Elena developed a love for helping people. That led her to go to chiropractic school to learn to do things in a more natural way. At the time, she didn’t know about naturopathic school or she might have gone in that direction. That’s the essence of the work she does today.

 

[6:03] After chiropractic school Dr. Elena had three successful sports medicine practices in the Austin, Texas area but she ended up getting very sick. Her father had just passed on and she had no advocate to help her. She was ashamed to tell anyone she was suffering.

 

[6:41] Dr. Elena was so sick she almost died. She lost her three practices and her home. She lived in her car but didn’t share with anyone what had happened to her because she carried a lot of shame. 

 

[7:03] Dr. Elena survived. She experienced a lot of miracles along the way and says miracles are always there if you’re looking for them. She had a big shift that led her to where she is today. She went back into practice with opportunities to cover for other doctors on maternity leave.

 

[7:33] Dr. Elena rediscovered her love for being in the health and wellness field, this time, doing more holistic and functional-type care rather than strictly the biomechanics of the back and neck. She discovered her purpose for what she is supposed to do, and that’s why she is here.

 

[8:03] It has been a beautiful ride, but it’s not always easy. It presents itself with challenges. If we can become conscious of the common challenges, we can overcome them and we can complete our mission or whatever it is we believe that we’re here to do.

 

[8:23] Sachin points out the many similarities between Dr. Elena’s journey and his own, including the unwellness he experienced and thought was normal before discovering functional medicine. Informed decisions bring better outcomes.

 

[9:57] Dr. Elena found out that there was a combination of factors that had led to her becoming ill and unable to heal. That is what she teaches today in her five-part series. She had had a combination of toxins in her body, including mold. She wasn‘t eating the right foods.

 

[10:40] She was burning the candle at both ends so she had a lot of physical and mental stress running three clinics as a single mother. She worked super hard to build security. Her choices, combined with toxins in her environment, and unresolved trauma, led to massive dysbiosis.

 

[12:11] Dr. Elena also suffered fatigue, brain fog, and back pain, She went down quickly with some severe symptoms and conditions. Doctors didn’t know what to do for her. She had severe bleeding for about two years. The doctors wanted to cut out her reproductive organs.

[12:55] Looking back, she sees it was a lot of grief being processed. She lost her memory gradually. She developed complete aphasia and severe gut issues. She had to take things to help her sleep and to help her massive panic attacks that she thought were heart attacks.

 

[13:47] She experienced massive headaches, emotional breakdowns, massive depression, and rashes all over her body. It felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong.

 

[15:10] Dr. Elena talks about how her experiences help her as she reaches out to others through an educational five-part series, starting with the Beyond the Pill Masterclass, and the Mental Health Masterclass, exploring the root causes of problems and offering solutions that work.

 

[16:24] Dr. Elena’s experiences also show up in her practice. Everyone who works for Dr. Elena first came to her because they saw her teaching when she shared a part of her story when she found that our mess is really our message. Her story can inspire audiences and practitioners.

 

[17:53] Dr. Elena’s approach incorporates a multi-faceted system addressing the conscious and the unconscious mind, the belief systems, the mindset and the stories that we create, and the unprocessed emotions and trauma, as well as the physical facets of who we are.

 

[18:21] The physical aspects are explored through bloodwork and labs, to help guide the bio-individual needs of their foods, lifestyle choices, and manner of exercise, supplements, and protocols to work on for the different organ systems of their body.

 

[19:34] Modern Holistic Health has a six-pillar system: Personal, Business, Marketing, Sales, Lifestyle, and Integration. Personal comes at the top, as she learned from her very successful mentors. She applies the Personal to her team, helping them to develop themselves.

 

[20:27] Dr. Elena believes that the degree of success that you can see in your business is directly correlated to your personal development and growth. Success to us doesn’t just mean money. What happens if you’re healthy in the money section, but not in the relationship section?

 

[21:12] A lot of people have a bad relationship with money. They generate money but later they have nothing to show for it. They don’t know how to invest their money, build their portfolio, or be better stewards of the money they make. This is under the Personal pillar.

 

[21:45] Personal is the first of the six pillars and Dr. Elena teaches a lot of personal development. Dr. Elena sees that as a gap in a lot of practitioner certification courses and masterminds. Dr. Elena has a lot of breakthroughs with her practitioners on that.

 

[22:11] The second pillar is Business. What are the foundations and the values upon which we are building our business? Why are we doing the business? It’s important that what we are doing with our business is in alignment with our value systems. Know basic business strategies.

 

[23:01] Building a solid foundation is important so you can get to that million-dollar mark and beyond it. What worked for you to get to $500,000 isn’t necessarily the same structure that will get you from $500,000 to $1,000,000, from a million to two million, and so on.

 

[23:47] One of the biggest mistakes practitioners make is that they try to grow wide quickly rather than focusing on growing deep roots first. Be involved in and understand every bit of your processes, in the beginning. Know that Version One is not going to be the final process.

 

[24:42] You need to be on top of your processes. When you scale to the next level, if your processes are not solid, and you’re not deep-rooted in your processes, that’s where things will go sideways really quickly and you could end up losing money without even knowing it.

 

[25:03] Dr. Elena teaches her practitioners to develop a mindset of curiosity and excitement around the processes. If you dread working on your processes, you are saying to the universe, “I don’t want this anymore,” and something will happen to mess up what you’re trying to build.

 

[25:38] The other four pillars are Marketing, Sales, Lifestyle, and Integration. Building the right team around you that has the same values is part of integration. Integration is key. That is where you get the real growth. Integrate all the parts for long-term business success.

 

[30:12] Modern Holistic Health has an organizational chart showing who is on each team. Dr. Elena tracks metrics and KPIs of the top things each member of each team is responsible for doing. She has them fill out a questionnaire to assess their values every year.

 

[31:20] Annual assessments help Dr. Elena to know if employees are still a good fit in the practice, should be promoted, moved, or go somewhere else. This is vital to the success of the business. Implement a process like this from the beginning, with a chart, to be able to scale.

 

[35:48] Dr. Elena believes it is important to invest in your team members’ professional development. It’s expensive; structure it so that if they leave your organization shortly after your investment in them, they owe you back the money you paid for their training.

 

[42:16] Dr. Elena has experienced stress when someone wasn’t meeting their metrics and she found it hard to fire them. Now she sees that if someone is not doing well, they know it and they’re not happy in their job, so it’s easy to fire them. Help them find a job where they fit.

 

[43:31] Dr. Elena speaks of having kept people in the practice for too long. It was bad for the business. After firing them, the business rebounded like a rubber band. Don’t keep people that hold your business back. They’re not happy, either. Let them go sooner rather than later.

 

[46:09] Dr. Elena has been super blessed to attract amazing mentors who have also been amazing friends to her. She has burned through a lot of money hiring mentors and joining masterminds. She feels a lot of gaps with practitioners in the personal development area.

 

[47:38] About two-and-a-half years ago, Modern Holistic Health hired their most recent business coach. After spending about $85,000 on him, they realized he wasn’t delivering what he promised, which was to help them set up a C-Suite and investors. Dr. Elena says this is rampant.

 

[49:41] Dr. Elena has probably spent $250,000 hiring people who didn’t help them. Ask for referrals from people who are where you want to be. Don’t get your referrals from somebody promoting themselves on stage but from people who have hired the best themselves.

 

[50:42] Dr. Elena speaks of some practitioners paying to go to an event and leaving feeling overwhelmed, having gotten little pearls of advice but not enough to connect the dots and implement in their practice, leaving a gap.

 

[51:08] Dr. Elena says the program she has put together is something that fills those gaps for practitioners. She also comments on the success of Sachin’s Metabolic Program. Besides the program she offers, she helps practitioners with their personal development.

 

[52:05] A big reason why people are not breaking the $250K or the $500K mark is their own limiting belief system. It’s not all just about the mechanics of building out the right SOPs and hiring the right people. It’s about what’s going on with your money mindset.

 

[52:30] Modern Holistic Health, is filling in the gap with a lot of personal development tools and breakthrough tools. She speaks of just finishing a week-long Level 1 Breakthrough event that took people through amazing blocks and limiting belief breakthroughs.

 

[53:15] One of Dr. Elena’s clients at the Breakthrough last week just sold one of her clients a $12K Breakthrough on the same tools she had learned in the Breakthrough.

 

[53:47] Certain practitioners have money mindset issues and limiting beliefs. Dr. Elena helps them to break through those blocks and limits. She sits with them, looks at where their process is breaking, puts together a process for them, and asks them to follow up in eight weeks.

 

[55:37] Dr. Elena has been diving into esoteric studies and is excited to explore spiritual experiences with mature women, traveling to ancient, megalithic sites and gathering in a community with like-minded women to live their lives in head-heart coherence.

 

[57:24] Practitioners and mentors can learn about Dr. Elena’s work by visiting ModernHolisticHealth.com and @ModernHolisticHealth on YouTube with case studies and teachings on things from bioenergetics to hormones to epigenetics.

 

[58:33] Sachin thanks Dr. Elena for the conversation today. Here’s to an amazing year ahead helping people in the capacity that brings you the absolute most joy. Dr. Elena sends the same wishes to Sachin and everyone listening to this episode of Perfect Practice.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Dr. Elena Villanueva

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

Tweetables:

 

“If we can become conscious of the common challenges, we can overcome them and we can complete our mission or whatever it is that we believe we’re here to do.” — Dr. Elena Villanueva

 

“The degree of success that you can see in your business is directly correlated to your personal development and your personal growth.” — Dr. Elena Villanueva

 

“Know that Version One is not going to be the final process. You may go through 10 versions of how you want your front office, whether it’s virtual or a physical office, to operate each day and the checklist of what you want them to do first.” — Dr. Elena Villanueva

 

“Integration is not optional, it’s key. That is where you get the real growth. We need to integrate all of the parts, all the things that I just talked about.” — Dr. Elena Villanueva

 

“A players only want to work with A players and B players only want to work with C players”  — Sachin paraphrasing Steve Jobs

 

“We have experienced keeping the wrong people for too long, for whatever excuses we came up with. … But when we let go of them it was like the business rebounded and did way better as soon as we cut the branches.” — Dr. Elena Villanueva

 

“Oftentimes, a big reason why people are not breaking the $250K or the $500K mark is their own limiting belief system. So, it’s not all just about the mechanics of building out the right SOPs and hiring the right people.” — Dr. Elena Villanueva

 

Dr. Elena Villanueva ModernHolisticHealth.com

@ModernHolisticHealth on YouTube

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Olga Stevko on unconscious programs and how to transform them, relieving symptoms caused by the stress created by your unconscious programs. Listen for insight on stress and its effects on many systems in the body, and most importantly, how to become neutral to stress triggers.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:01] The topic is our subconscious and unconscious nervous system and how it affects our health, business, and the way we show up for others and ourselves.

 

[1:28] Sachin introduces today’s guest, Dr. Olga Stevko. Sachin met Dr. Olga last year at Mindshare. Sachin and Dr. Olga have connected several times over the past few months as she helped him with some of the subconscious challenges holding him back.

 

[2:32] Sachin welcomes Dr. Olga Stevko to Perfect Practice.

 

[2:58] Dr. Oga developed her methodology by combining several modalities. She trained as a medical doctor in Russia and practiced medicine there. She learned neurolinguistic programming and started working with the unconscious mind.

 

[4:06] In her medical practice, Dr. Olga observed that people of similar age and condition healed at different rates. Some healed quickly. Some never healed completely. Dr. Olga believes that their mindsets would determine how they would heal.

 

[4:58] Dr. Olga’s curiosity led her to explore the work of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Milton Erickson. She realized that the unconscious mind is so powerful it creates our subjective reality and things related to it.

 

[6:28] Dr. Olga explains that unconscious programs result from stressful life events and trauma, including transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Dr. Olga says that 95% of our entire life experiences are shaped by unconscious programs.

 

[7:40] She says unconscious programs influence how we perceive ourselves, other people, and the world around us.

 

[8:18] Dr. Olga states that unconscious programs affect our nervous system with fight, fight, or freeze responses. This can lead to many different issues in many areas of our lives; relationships, business, health, and even premature aging for some people.

 

[9:11] Dr. Olga says perception is how we perceive with all of our senses: what we see, hear, touch, smell, and taste. Perception comes through our autonomic nervous system. Dr. Olga’s theory is that our unconscious mind is our autonomic nervous system and much more.

 

[10:13] The perception of an experience is different for every person in a group in the same situation. This comes from unconscious programs from unresolved genetic trauma, wound trauma, and childhood trauma.

 

[10:58] For some people, the perception can be fearful, for some, neutral. For some, it can create anger. Our perception is not our reality. Our perception creates in us a certain reaction because of our unconscious programs that can create fight, flight, and freeze responses.

 

[11:28] All of that can affect our body and mind in a big way. Psychoneuroimmunology shows that stress affects our immune system and endocrine system. Perception can affect how our brain, peripheral nervous system, and autonomic nervous system react to a certain stimulus.

 

[12:34] That creates biochemical and physiological changes in our body that can lead to our immune system response, which can lead to health conditions. Stress can lead to numerous health conditions, including cardiovascular, autoimmune, and allergies.

 

[13:35] Your perception can create a stress response. That stress response can be because of emotions like fear, sadness, grief, and anger. Dr. Olga found that emotions support us through our autonomic nervous system.

 

[13:58] It’s unconscious. No matter how you prepare yourself not to react, in that situation when you have a similar perception and response to certain emotions, your unconscious mind will rule, no matter how consciously you’re preparing yourself to react differently.

 

[14:24] It’s significant that emotions are created on the unconscious level. To change the response, you need to work on the unconscious level. You need to transform unconscious programs that create that response and perception that create many issues in your life.

[14:59] Your business and relationships are about you, how you look at situations, how you perceive situations, how your thoughts are forming, your ability to verbalize those thoughts, and your emotional intelligence and social intelligence.

 

[15:36] All of that can create can create problems in your relationships and business, or allow you to be very good in business, communication, and relationships.

 

[16:53] Dr. Olga believes that everybody experiences trauma. She believes the opposite of the consequences of trauma is resilience. Some people are resilient. They find new meaning and resources to deal with challenges.

 

[18:07] Dr. Olga has a theory that some people are so resilient because of their ancestral genetic experience. Their ancestors’ ability to be resilient can be passed down genetically.

 

[18:49] Some people are resilient even if something horrible happens, while others cannot function under stress.

 

[19:33] Dr. Olga explains that people are born with a certain set of genes that do not change. Genes can be expressed in the womb. People are born already with certain symptoms. In some people, genes are expressed in childhood or adult life. Trauma leads genes to express.

 

[20:35] Dr. Olga’s process can work even with children several months old. She would work directly with the children and with their parents. She asks that the child be present in the room, playing, sleeping, or watching TV. The child’s unconscious mind can still be listening.

 

[21:29] During the process Dr. Olga created, the trauma that created the unconscious program will resolve and the unconscious program will be transformed. As a result, there can often be dramatic shifts not only for that issue, but other issues can also resolved or symptoms reduced.

 

[22:00] The same unconscious program can create more than one issue.

 

[23:24] How the mind reacts to some unconscious programs wastes a lot of energy. Some people are in a freeze, fight, or flight state every day. Dr. Olga observes how people look. Unconscious programs often create neuromuscular locks everywhere in the body and face.

 

[25:47] Dr. Olga describes traits she observes in people with neuromuscular locks from unconscious programs in their facial expressions, posture, breathing, and speaking.

 

[27:12] For example, if there are neuromuscular locks in muscles for breathing and voice production, often, people’s voices will be not deep but airy, or they might have a choked voice or feel a lump in their throat that will remarkably affect their voices or breathing.

 

[28:02] Dr. Olga has seen multiple clients with panic attacks who had such strong neuromuscular locks that they could not breathe deeply to help calm their panic. It’s important to train your muscles and transform the unconscious programs that create neuromuscular locks.

 

[28:55] Dr. Olga had a client who, by transforming several of his unconscious programs, went from a high-pitched nasal voice to a voice like a baritone singer. It’s a total change, without doing voice exercises. He’s breathing dramatically deeper without trying to change it.

 

[30:16] She has observed a change in body language in some clients. She asks people to express themselves by drawing lines and shapes. Dr. Olga sees in these shapes unconscious patterns that guide her in what unconscious program to work on during that session.

 

[31:05] Dr. Olga works on one program at a time. Even transforming one unconscious program can produce truly dramatic shifts for many people.

 

[33:34] Some people sabotage themselves all their lives because of unconscious programs. They’re doing so much but not moving in the direction they want.

 

[34:41] Some unconscious programs trigger neuromuscular locks that affect muscles and joints, and even after adjustments, they do not stay adjusted. When you identify what causes some neuromuscular locks, the problems are resolved. Dr. Olga gives patient examples from her website.

 

[35:43] Dr. Olga talks of the process she created. After an assessment, observation, and looking at the drawing or drawings, Dr. Olga identifies what unconscious program the person will work on in the session. During the process, the client’s unconscious mind will do most of the work.

 

[36:18] While the client’s unconscious mind is working, consciously, the client will be doing the two or three steps of the process. The unconscious program the client will be working on creates certain somatic experiences. It can be an emotional experience.

 

[36:45] The process will guide the client’s unconscious mind to find all the memories that created these unconscious programs and the symptoms they created. Your mind can be working on groups of memories at the same time, including genetic and childhood memories.

 

[37:30] After the client’s unconscious mind finds all these memories, your conscious mind does not need to recall these memories. Recalling some traumatic memories can recreate the trauma. For some people, short-term concepts of memories of trauma might come.

 

[38:11] Dr. Olga asks the unconscious mind to do several steps and during these steps, trauma or traumas they experienced during those traumatic memories can be resolved.

 

[38:34] At the end of the process, the unconscious program will be transformed and symptoms can be gone, or reduced if something else caused the same symptoms. It will positively influence all the areas of the client’s life that the unconscious program influenced.

 

[40:23] Dr. Olga did not do this type of work in Russia. Russian medical school is different from American medical schools. She is grateful for the medical training she received in Russia. Russia has a more holistic approach. They look at the entire system to resolve symptoms.

 

[42:58] Most people are not aware of the unconscious patterns and programs. They are aware of issues that are created because of their unconscious programs. It is important for everybody to bring awareness to these unconscious patterns that create issues.

 

[43:39] Bringing awareness is the first step for healing, transformation, and resolving issues.

 

[44:55] Most of the time, unconscious programs cause the issue you are having. Dr. Olga mentions that not everyone has the chance to work on the unconscious program, but other things can be done that will make your life easier.

 

[46:25] When you change your perspective, it can shape how you feel. If you can imagine stepping out or dissociating from the situation, it is better than reliving the trauma or associating with it. When trauma is resolved, people feel dissociated from it. They are neutral to it.

 

[48:04] You can observe yourself. How are you feeling in the situation? Can you change your position? Step right. Imagine you are the person you are dealing with. Observe the perspective of the person. Find the positive intention of the person and why the person is behaving that way.

 

[48:56] Become a witness of the situation. Then step left and you can imagine yourself as the wisest teacher or grandmother you had. Look at the situation from her point of view. After you get this information, be yourself being a witness. It might shape how you act in the situation.

 

[50:10] Stress responses are not about the stressful situation. Stressful situations can come every day. It’s all about how you perceive the situation and react to it. That all can be treated by working on the unconscious programs or even changing your perspective.

 

[50:52] When you work on unconscious programs, when the unconscious programs are transformed, the next time you are in the same triggering situation, your emotions and behavior will be neutral, not triggered.

 

[51:39] Dr. Olga had a client with Hashimoto’s Disease, an autoimmune disease. She was overwhelmed. By working on unconscious programs, all symptoms of Hashimoto’s were gone. Her doctor took her off several medications. She could deal with situations without overwhelm.

 

[53:42] For more information about Dr. Olga’, go to DrOlga.com. Dr. Olga would like to let people know that even watching some podcasts and webinars and bringing awareness to others can shape how you feel. People have told her that by watching her videos they feel better.

 

[54:36] Sachin went through this process and experienced great benefits from it. He endorses it highly. Check out the amazing testimonials on DrOlga.com. Sachin thanks Dr. Olga Stevko.

 

[54:54] To everyone listening, here’s to your highest healing. Let’s get rid of those unconscious blocks and patterns that aren’t serving us so we can step up and live our best lives but also help others live their best lives!

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Dr. Olga Stevko

The Power of Your Unconscious Mind, by Joseph Murphy

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

Tweetables:

 

“I realized that the unconscious mind is so powerful it pretty much creates our subjective reality.” — Dr. Olga Stevko

 

“Some unconscious programs stop us from creating our best life and becoming our best self. Unconscious programs are called as a result of stressful life events and trauma, including trauma passed genetically as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.” — Dr. Olga Stevko

 

“Unconscious programs influence how we perceive ourselves, other people around us, and the world around us.” — Dr. Olga Stevko

 

“The same unconscious program can create more than one issue.” — Dr. Olga Stevko

 

“Some people sabotage themselves all their adult lives because of unconscious programs.” — Dr. Olga Stevko

 

Dr. Olga Stevko

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Penney Stringer on her journey from working as a family practice physician to achieving her purpose of bringing healing to groups of people through a mindful functional medicine practice. Listen for insight on following your heart in the flow of abundance as you help clients heal.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:01] Sachin introduces Dr. Penney Stringer, a trailblazer and mother of two children. Sachin welcomes Penney to Perfect Practice. [2:22] Dr. Penney Stringer started as a medical doctor and moved into functional medicine. After her residency, she worked in a community healthcare center outside Seattle, Washington, working with people on the margins. The clinic also had an acupuncturist and naturopaths.

 

[2:54] Dr. Stringer was a family medicine doctor. She referred everyone to the people she knew could help them: a nutritionist, a naturopath, an acupuncturist, and a counselor. There was also a dispensary. At the same time, she did hospital work associated with the clinic.

 

[3:36] All she had to do was write prescriptions. One day, she felt sick writing a prescription for a medicine she knew was harmful. A young patient with ankylosing spondylitis and bad back pain had been to a naturopath and had been given antibiotics and fish oil for a gut infection.

 

[4:08] The patient came back to Dr. Stringer and was all better. He didn’t need the prescription for pain medication. After being treated for his gut infection, his autoimmune disease got better. Dr. Stringer questioned how that happened.

 

[4:26] About that time, she was invited by a naturopathic student to a Jeffrey Bland lecture in 2000, in Seattle. Jeffrey Bland is the “grandfather” of functional medicine. She started going to the free lectures Jeffrey Bland was giving.

 

[4:57] The first lecture was all about the microbiome and the biochemical pathways. It was what Dr. Stringer had thought she would learn in medical school. She went to her first training not too long after that. She says the rest is history.

 

[5:28] Dr. Stringer moved to a new town in the early 2000s. A doctor was practicing functional medicine there with a patient waitlist of five years. A nearby hospital funded the functional medicine wellness clinic and Dr. Stringer’s salary at the clinic.

 

[6:43] Right out of her Institute for Functional Medicine AFMCP course in Boston, Dr. Stringer had a mentor, all the testing, all the supplements, all the patients lined up to see her, and a salary that she didn’t have to worry about. She felt like it was what she was supposed to do.

 

[8:21] Dr. Stringer says it was a blessed situation in every way. It was all insurance-based so patients could get the best care with two dedicated physicians. The doctors were free to do what they believed in. It was not regular Western medicine. It was functional medicine from the start.

 

[8:47] The town is a nuclear toxic cleanup site. A lot of the jobs are in the cleanup. She helps with people’s detox and hormone renewal analysis. Her first patient was full of heavy metals, just as she had learned in class. She feels like things are put in our path to see if we’re awake.

 

[10:45] Dr. Stringer thinks that the key is paying attention. If you want to learn about something, request it from whoever is listening and see how long it takes to show up at your doorstep.

 

[11:52] Dr. Stringer talks about her sense of presence. She says her dad was a keen observer of nature. He was a biologist and environmental scientist with a doctorate in parasitology from Johns Hopkins. He viewed the world with a beginner’s mind and asked profound questions.

[12:25] Dr. Stringer tells how her father researched the chrysalis of the monarch butterfly, and presented papers on it around the world, all because he wanted to know what happened in the chrysalis. He asked the question and got a grant to find out. He’s now in a documentary.

 

[13:35] One of Dr. Stringer’s earliest memories with her dad is going in the woods. He would stoop down and turn over a rock and show his children the universe under the rock. He instilled in Penney some of that sense of presence. 

 

[14:01] Dr Stringer spent her junior college year in Spain, studying Spanish literature and she saw daily siestas. When she came back, she learned transcendental meditation. After meditating, when she went outside, she could see every shade of green she had never seen.

 

[15:05] Dr. Stringer teams up with a master cranial sacral therapist to do a double hands-on with patients. They sit in silence with a patient for an hour.

 

[15:50] That has given Dr. Stringer so much insight and awareness about the process of healing and being present with another human being and holding the space for transformation, being there with their joy, pain, or release. It’s not always comfortable.

 

[16:18] Dr. Stringer has to do cranial sacral herself to release what she observes in others. There’s a lot of pain and suffering. Some of us are very in tune with that pain and suffering. It’s important to do your own work to release what you observe so it doesn’t get stuck in your body.

 

[17:28] If you are not dissipating the energy that’s building up, you feel burned out or don’t care as much. You feel tired. Dr. Stringer notices that her nervous system gets shaky. You could get headaches, upset stomach, or not sleep well, or more, from holding onto other people’s energy.

 

[20:13] Dr. Stringer worked at the functional medicine office for about five years and then they went their separate ways. She had children. She went back and worked at the community health center so she didn’t have to run a business when her babies were little.

 

[20:30] Then Dr. Stringer started her own practice. For 18-and-a-half years, she had done functional medicine in the insurance system. With Sachin’s mentorship, she took the leap and jumped out of the insurance system, partially spurred by how the recent pandemic was handled.

 

[22:00] Sachin has been Dr. Stringer’s only business growth mentor. She has done everything by her heart. She doesn’t do or choose anything based on finances. Dr. Stringer thinks that when you have the right intention, things work out for you and abundance flows.

 

[22:46] Dr. Stringer says that Sachin has been a very helpful mentor for her, for thinking heart-centered but business savvy. Beyond finances, for Dr. Stringer, the bigger part of abundance is being in nature every day as part of her ability to do her work.

 

[23:32] Dr. Stringer had another important mentor in medical school at Georgetown, Dr. Jim Gordon, who runs the Center for Mind Body Medicine. He’s a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and an acupuncturist. Dr. Gordon informed me so much about the way Dr. Stringer thinks about healing.

 

[24:09] Dr. Stringer’s purpose is healing in community. The reason she joined the mentorship was to solidify doing groups and making the community the hallmark of her dynamic and system. Dr. Gordon’s training in mind-body medicine is the basis of all of Dr. Stringer’s groups.

 

[24:45] Dr. Stringer says Sachin is a great mentor. She feels that learning business and healing are not that different and that they can all be together. 

 

[25:12] Dr. Stringer recommends learning to facilitate mind-body skills groups as an eloquent and beautiful model for being a facilitator but also a participant in the group. It’s mindfulness-based training.

 

[25:35] Dr. Stringer had another pivotal shift when she went to ECO Conference. It helped her reframe the way she thinks about barriers to healing and how to address toxins and stealth bugs.

 

[26:17] Dr. Stringer speaks of a book that was pivotal to her, The Nature Fix, by Florence Williams which documents a positive biochemical effect in the brain that PTSD sufferers receive from being in nature for three days. Sachin relates it to the wellness modality of forest bathing.

 

[29:02] Nature is a powerful teacher and powerful medicine for our sanity. Sachin suggests prescribing forest bathing to your patients and clients. It could be a missing link for a lot of people’s healing journeys.

 

[29:23] Dr. Stringer notes a recent NYTimes article on the recommendations of nature for health benefits. They recommend spending 20 minutes in nature, three days a week, plus five hours a month of longer hiking, plus going off-grid for three days a year.

 

[30:19] Sachin is going on a three-day snowshoeing hike with his brother and a guide in Algonquin Park where the lake freezes over. They’ll have a sauna tent and bathe in a hole in the ice in the water. He’s super stoked about it.

 

[30:55] Being in nature is such an important thing we should all be doing. He hopes what you learn from this conversation is to spend some more time in nature.

 

[31:41] Dr. Stringer brings up the benefits of fasting. She is on the second day of a three-day ProLon mimicking fast and she feels an amazing shift. It’s amazing to get into a fasting state. It’s phenomenal. Sachin notes that It’s an easy modality to integrate into your practice.

 

[33:44] Dr. Stringer recommends bodywork; worrying with the subtle energy of the body, as another modality. She sticks to the elemental, basic things.

 

[39:43] Dr. Stringer thinks medical physicians and professionals pairing up with health coaches is a no-brainer.

 

[40:12] If you are interested in setting up a group-based program, Dr. Stringer says to follow what interests you and lights you up in terms of the kinds of patients you want to work with, and the setting. She believes that word of mouth is always the best way to grow a practice.

 

[40:35] If you want to do groups, start doing them. Don’t wait for the perfect system; no one really has the perfect system. Just start doing groups of five, six, or 10 people. It’s an efficient way to teach and to be compensated. Sometimes you have to start with individual people.

 

[41:23] Dr. Stringer doesn’t have a referral system. That will be the next phase of what she does to reach more people. So far, it’s 90% word of mouth.

 

[41:36] Offerings of teachings and master classes are a good way for people to know that you know what you’re talking about, that you care, and that your heart’s in it. Dr. Stringer has done master classes for the past three years and it has been great.

 

[41:58] Now she is doing more in-person things, which are the most fulfilling for her. Getting in front of people and being generous with your offerings to share your knowledge will come back to benefit you. Generosity is reciprocal.

 

[43:04] Dr. Penney Stringer says this is her year for saying, “yes” to everything. For the next four weekends, she is traveling to visit friends and family and to a breathwork conference with James Nestor.

 

[44:34] Dr. Penney Stringer learned of the James Nestor breathwork conference from Sachin, who says going to that event was one of the highlights of his life.

 

[44:45] Dr. Penney Stringer is also planning to go with a functional medicine friend to a nature-based three-day retreat for women in menopause.

 

[45:09] Sachin thanks Dr. Stringer for spending time with him and his audience today and sharing her wisdom. There are great takeaways of things we can do in nature, with self-care, keeping things simple in our practice, and following our hearts, with the highest integrity.

 

[46:02] To learn more about Dr. Stringer’s practice, go to PenneyStringerMD.com.

 

[46:32] Penny’s last words: “Follow your heart and trust that you are in the abundance flow.”

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Dr. Penney Stringer

Jeffrey Bland

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams

ProLon

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

Tweetables:

 

“I feel like things are put in our path to see if we’re awake and see if we’re paying attention and I think that can happen with your patients and with your process as a healer and as a business owner.” — Dr. Penney Stringer

 

“If you want to learn about something, request it from whoever is listening and see how long it takes to show up at your doorstep.” — Dr. Penney Stringer 

 

“I did all this training so I can teach people how to eat and breathe, and touch nature? How is that possible? … That’s what gets people better!” — Dr. Penney Stringer

 

“I would say if you want to do groups, start doing them. Don’t wait for the perfect system; no one has the perfect system. Just start doing groups of five, six, or 10 people.” — Dr. Penney Stringer 

 

“Generosity is reciprocal.” — Dr. Penney Stringer 

 

Dr. Penney StringerIFM

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Debi Silber, founder of the Post Betrayal Transformation® Institute about her journey from television production to coaching people to post betrayal transformation. She shares the problems that grow from past betrayals relating to emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual issues that remain unhealed until the betrayal is faced and dealt with. She shares examples from life and even from her family life and career. Listen in for insight on how your clients’ betrayals or your betrayals may be causing issues for them or you.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:59] Sachin introduces Dr. Debi Silber, who joins us for a conversation about our business, our emotional health, integrity, and betrayal. [1:42] Betrayal is something we deal with constantly. It likely happened to us many years ago and it currently impacts the way we operate. It may impact our nervous system, our relationships, and the dreams and aspirations we reach for; certainly, it impacts our self-worth.

 

[2:17] Dr. Debi Silber has developed a very successful business following her passion and her mission, speaking to people about betrayal and the trauma that it causes, the impact it has, and the breakthroughs that can come as a result.

 

[2:35] Sachin thanks Dr. Debi for being here on Perfect Practice.

 

[3:34] Dr. Debi followed her gut. She had graduated from college with a double major in TV production and broadcast journalism but she learned that production wasn’t rewarding or fulfilling her. Debi didn’t immediately give up production, but health was what was calling to her.

 

[4:32] Eventually, Debi became an NSRD and a holistic dietician with a Master’s in nutrition. From there, Debi became a personal trainer. That business took off. Although Debi was eating well and exercising, she realized she was sick. She was anything but the picture of health.

 

[5:13] Debi studied to become a whole health coach. She learned that the thoughts she was thinking, the stress she was under, and the relationships she had were at the root of her sickness.

 

[5:30] Debi cut the ties and healed from all of it. That was the beginning of this new health journey. Years later, her traumas from betrayal led her to the Ph.D. program, the studies, and where she is now.

 

[5:51] Dr. Debi founded the Post Betrayal Transformation® Institute. She is a holistic psychologist with a health and personal development mindset. She is a two-time bestselling author. She has a popular podcast. She gave two TEDx talks. She’s been on the Dr. Oz Show.

 

[6:40] About toxic relationships. Dr. Debi says you’re in a toxic relationship when you start questioning and doubting yourself, when you stop believing in yourself and you figure that someone else knows better than you, and when you don’t realize your value and worth.

 

[7:21] Often, it starts with an early betrayal. A child is shushed by his mother and starts to think he doesn’t matter. If that’s his belief, it will affect his choices, the work he would do, and the people he would date, if it doesn’t get looked at.

 

[9:10] The second of Debi’s three discoveries is that post betrayal syndrome has symptoms. It shows up in health, work, and relationships. It can show up as a repeat betrayal. The faces change but it’s the same thing. You go from boss to boss, friend to friend, partner to partner.

[9:40] It’s not your fault, it’s your opportunity: There’s a profound lesson waiting to be learned! You are lovable, worthy, and deserving. You need better boundaries in place. Whatever it is, until and unless you get that, you will have opportunities in the form of people who teach you.

 

[9:56] A repeat betrayal means it is unhealed.

 

[9:59] The second way betrayal shows up in relationships is the big wall keeping everyone at a distance. It comes from a place of fear. Our trust was so shattered that we would rather keep everyone at bay than risk vulnerability and feel that pain again. That’s an unhealed betrayal.

 

[10:24] At work, your confidence was shattered so you don’t have the confidence to ask for a deserved raise or promotion, and you’re bitter and resentful instead. Or you want to be a team player but the person you trusted the most, or your boss, proved untrustworthy.

 

[10:47] In health, people go to a well-meaning doctor, coach, healer, or therapist to manage a stress-related issue. At the root of it is an unhealed betrayal.

 

[11:06] Dr. Debi founded National Forgiveness Day, September 1. If you’re working on forgiveness for the wrong reasons, it backfires every time. Move toward acceptance first, it’s an easier reach.

 

[12:26] Withholding forgiveness only hurts us. In the betrayed community, we feel the rug has been pulled out from under us and we barely have any control over our lives. Granting or withholding forgiveness is something within our control and we are hesitant to give it back.

 

[12:52] Debi shares a story of the power of forgiveness for an elderly woman with an old family betrayal. She also had digestive issues. She participated in a 21-day forgiveness journey. Two weeks into her forgiveness journey, she healed from her digestive issues.

 

[14:36] Dr. Debi says 95,000-plus men and women have taken the Post Betrayal Quiz from many countries. Of respondents, 78% constantly revisit their experience, 81% feel loss of personal power, 80% are hyper-vigilant, and 94% deal with painful triggers.

 

[15:08] Physical symptoms reported are low energy (71%), sleep issues (68%), extreme fatigue (63%), weight changes (47%), and digestive issues (45%). Mental symptoms reported are overwhelm (78%), disbelief (70%), shock (64%), and inability to concentrate (62%).

 

[15:42] You can’t concentrate, you have a gut issue, you’re exhausted, and you still have to raise your children; you still have to work.

 

[15:52] Emotionally, 88% experience extreme sadness; 83% are very angry. Think about what your nervous system is doing when that’s happening.

 

[16:07] Eighty-two percent are hurt; 79% are stressed; 84% have an inability to trust; 67% prevent themselves from forming deep relationships for fear of being hurt again; 82% find it hard to move forward, and 90% want to move forward but don’t know how.

 

[17:01] This betrayal could be from a parent when you were a child or the boyfriend or girlfriend who broke your heart in high school. They may not know, care, or even be alive and you have these symptoms from something years ago. You can heal from all of it.

 

[17:34] People typically go to therapy, where they feel heard but also retraumatize themselves, solidify their story, and make it who they are. They are stuck with repeat betrayals.

 

[18:32] Some people numb, avoid, and distract. They use food, drugs, alcohol, work, TV, or more to numb, avoid, and distract themselves. In PBT, people learn to face it, feel it, and heal it. That’s how to move through it. You can’t move through it if you're numbing or coasting.

 

[19:03] Some people join a support group and are miserable together. They sabotage their healing because they don’t want to outgrow their people.

 

[19:28] Numbing, hanging onto your story, or seeking people with the same story is like Krazy Glue® keeping you stuck in one spot, preventing you from moving through the five stages from betrayal to breakthrough.

 

[20:35] We can stay stuck for decades but if we’re going to fully heal from post betrayal syndrome to a completely rebuilt space, post betrayal transformation, (Dr. Debi’s first discovery), we’re going to move through five proven, predictable stages (Dr. Debi’s third discovery).

 

[20:58] We know what happens physically, mentally, and emotionally, at every one of the five stages and what it takes to move from one stage to the next. Healing is entirely predictable.

 

[21:18] Stage 1 is before it happens. Imagine four legs to a table, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. People lean heavily on the physical and mental and neglect the emotional and spiritual. A table with only two legs topples over.

 

[21:40] Stage 2 is shock, trauma, and discovery day. It’s the scariest, by far of the stages. It’s the breakdown of the body, mind, and worldview. You ignite the stress response. Your mind is in total chaos and overwhelm. You can’t wrap your mind around what you just learned.

 

[22:39] Stage 3 is survival instinct. You grab hold of anything or anyone to stay safe and alive. This is the most practical stage. It’s the most common place to get stuck. Once we’ve figured out how to survive our experience, as it feels better than shock and trauma, we plant roots.

 

[24:25] Because we don’t know there’s anywhere else to go, but it still feels bad, we start numbing and distracting. This can go on for years and we’re stuck in Stage 3.

 

[25:19] If you are willing to let go of your story, the benefits you’re receiving, grief, and more, you move to Stage 4.

 

[25:31] Stage 4 is finding and adjusting to a new normal. You acknowledge you can’t undo what happened but you control what you do with it. That turns down the stress and stops the damage you’ve been accumulating in Stage 2 and Stage 3. It feels like you’ve moved to a new place.

 

[25:55] When you move, you don’t take things with you that don’t represent who you are ready to become. Old relationships that were not there for you or don’t change with you are left behind. You’ve outgrown them.

 

[26:26] When you settle into your new space that you have made mentally home, you move into Stage 5. Stage 5 is healing, rebirth, and a new worldview. Your body starts to heal. Self-love, self-care, eating well, and exercising. You didn’t have the bandwidth for that before; now you do. 

 

[26:44] Your mind is healing. You make new rules, set new boundaries, and you have a new worldview, based on everything you’ve been through. The four legs of your table, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, are solidly grounded. You are focused on all four legs.

 

[27:04] Sachin relates his life’s growth to the five stages and speaks of a big shift when he moved away from a bad job. He considers his clients as possibly going through betrayal. He considers his relationship with his son and asks how to break the ice if he may be the betrayer.

 

[30:22] Debi’s betrayal came when she had four teens. It was the biggest wake-up call. They are so close now, like having been through a war together. At the time, she told them how she loved them and was not at her best, but was giving them the best she could. They supported her.

 

[31:07] Debi finds that nothing beats honesty. She explains how that would work in a conversation with a child about falling short in dealing with that child. When in doubt, honesty wins every time. Sachin recommends you play this part of the episode back and practice it.

 

[32:25] Debi adds advice for a betrayer who wants to be accountable and repair trust in a relationship. Your honesty is not supposed to flow out of you beautifully. That doesn’t build trust. It’s supposed to be awkward. You’re not supposed to be smooth at this. It’s unfamiliar to you.

 

[33:08] It’s OK. You’re learning something new because that person is worth it. Instead of trying to get the words right, just tap into your heart. Conversations go wrong when we go from our head to reach someone’s head or to reach their heart. Go from your heart to their heart.

 

[34:24] Debi has always gone by her intuition. Early on, with four kids, six dogs, and a thriving business, it was all about holding it together. Her advice is to be careful what feeds you. To keep it going, Debi was sacrificing sleep and cutting corners on herself, and that caught up quickly.

 

[35:15] The lesson learned led Debi to leave health in that way and move toward something that involves what stress is doing and what your lifestyle is creating. From there, Debi realized that toxic family relationships were at the root of her issues.

 

[35:52] When Debi cut those ties, her mentor told her it was like she had traded an anchor for a pair of wings. She healed from everything. Debi wrote her first book in two-and-a-half weeks. It flew out of her. She wanted every mom to know the “secret to everything” she thought she had.

 

[36:18] Debi became an FDN. Then Debi’s betrayal came, from her family and her husband. She enrolled in a Ph.D. program in transpersonal psychology and did her study on betrayal, to get herself out of the jam and understand how the mind works and why we do these things.

 

[37:05] When the discoveries in her study showed up, Debi was on a Zoom call with a mentor talking about the discoveries but not sharing her story. Her mentor told her to stop hiding behind her study. She knew he was right.

 

[37:45] She sat down with her children and her husband, as they were working on reconciliation, and told them she was going to write their story in a book. Her children approved. Her husband got emotional and said, “You’re going to help so many people.” So it was in the book.

 

[38:30] Debi gave two TEDx talks. In the first one, “Stop Sabotaging Yourself,” six weeks after her betrayal, she hinted at her story. In the second one, “Do You Have Post Betrayal Syndrome?” she talked about her betrayal for one of the first times. It’s changed her life.

 

[39:24] Debi describes how people move through the stages at the PBT. She also offers two certification programs: Certified PBT Coach or Practioner and Certified Support Group Host. The intention is for people to get the right kind of support to lift and inspire them.

 

[40:15] Support groups are going up around the world, the PBT is growing and certifying more coaches and getting more members, especially corporate employees with fear, who are acting from unhealed betrayals of years ago. PBT is approaching corporations to help address this.

 

[41:58] Debi loves speaking and would like to do more of it. In the beginning for her, speaking was a means of imparting information. Then she realized it’s not about information but about sharing a special experience with the audience, as though telling them about a great book.

 

[42:34] When Debi changed her speaking to sharing what excited her, she began to love speaking. Her favorite parts are the book signing or getting to hug people afterward. Her talks sometimes shock people to prod them out of numbness.

 

[43:32] When it comes to sharing your message, share it in a way that feels really good for you. If blogging feels natural and comfortable, do that. If podcasting feels great, do that. Or being on stages. The world needs what you have in the specific way you have it.

 

[44:01] Don’t try everything. When you’re doing what you do best, it’s effortless and you love it. Why not just do more of that?

 

[45:26] Debi describes the Hero’s Journey, going about their business, then there’s the big trauma, and then the part where they start to rise and realize their worth and value. The trauma starts to subside and they ask “What can I do with this and use it to my advantage?”

 

[46:18] That’s what excites Debi, because that’s when you’ll see new levels of health, new relationships, new passion projects, new businesses, and endless possibilities.

 

[47:26] The PBT offers two tracks for certifying PBT coaches. One is for coaches and healers and the other is for doctors, therapists, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists. It’s the same training of the five stages, it’s just a difference in the title and pay of coach or practitioner.

 

[47:50] The ideal candidate is a coach who has experienced betrayal and wants to serve this niche. As 45% of betrayed people have digestive issues, a digestive doctor would be a perfect candidate. How much more effective would they be if they got to the root cause of the issue?

 

[49:05] If a practitioner wants to refer to Dr. Debi Silber, start at ThePBTInstitute.com. The PBT can work remotely. They have clients and coaches all over the world. There’s a recent coach from Dubai and one who’s starting from Kenya. Members are from all over the world.

 

[49:45] Dr. Debi Silber shares her one message with the world: “As it relates to betrayal, even though it happened to you, it’s not about you. Say that to yourself a million times until you believe it because that’s absolutely true. There’s a roadmap. Healing has become a choice.”

 

[50:03] “As far as business goes, follow your gut. If you feel called to do something, it’s because you’re supposed to. And do it boldly, and proudly, and don’t give up, ever.”

 

[50:32] Sachin thanks Dr. Debi Silber for being such a source of inspiration on Perfect Practice. Sachin would love to hear about breakthroughs his listeners have as a result of listening to this conversation. Listeners, please check out the links in the show notes.

 

[51:39] Dr. Debi Silber thanks Sachin.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

“Debi Silber: Stop Sabotaging Yourself” TEDx

“Debi Silber: Do You Have Post Betrayal Syndrome?” TEDx

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

Tweetables:

 

“You’re in a toxic relationship when you start questioning and doubting yourself; when you stop believing in yourself and you figure that someone else knows better than you; when you don’t realize your value and your worth.” — Dr. Debi Silber

 

“A repeat betrayal means it is unhealed.” — Dr. Debi Silber

 

“Withholding forgiveness only hurts us.” — Dr. Debi Silber

 

“Stage 5 is healing, rebirth, and a new worldview. Your body starts to heal with self-love, self-care, eating well, and exercising. You didn’t have the bandwidth for that before; now you do.” — Dr. Debi Silber

 

“We just want to get the Five Stages into as many hands as possible.” — Dr. Debi Silber

 

Dr. Debi Silber, WBENC Certified WBE The PBT® Institute

 

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews James White, CEO of KBMO Diagnostics about the Food Inflammation Test or FIT, what it does for patients and practitioners, and how it works. James shares his career history and how KBMO Diagnostics came to be a key tool for determining the trigger foods for patients with inflammation. They also discuss the Gut Barrier Panel and the Cardiovascular Inflammation Test and how they could help your patients. Listen in for the details of how you can use KBMO Diagnostics to improve your health and in your practice to improve the health of your clients.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:01] Sachin introduces James White, the founder of KBMO Labs. This lab has been instrumental in Sachin’s healing journey with a better understanding of what foods he should and should not be eating. One person’s food could be poison for somebody else.

 

[1:38] Today we will discuss what functional food testing looks like to get a better understanding of how our body responds to foods that are favorable to it and foods that are not. This can give insight into what might lead to chronic inflammation or pain, despite a healthy and nutritious diet.

 

[2:04] James ran Sachin’s labs on-site at Mindshare. Sachin made some unexpected discoveries. There could be hidden triggers to people’s underlying issues or even issues they do not know. Sachin loves the convenience and the amazing service provided by the team.

 

[2:56] Sachin gives a shoutout to Dr. Robert Silverman, who introduced James to Sachin.

 

[3:05] Sachin welcomes James White to Perfect Practice.

 

[3:35] James has a background in running diagnostics companies from blood gas analysis to molecular diagnostics. Then he got involved in specialized cardiovascular testing. The mantra of cardiologists at the time was “eat less and exercise more,” without individualized care.

 

[4:59] James was looking for a better way to address heart issues when he came across Brent Dorval, Ph.D., who had invented the first rapid HIV diagnostic. Dr. Dorval had a new test that he had three providers using. James called each provider and they were unanimous in their praise.

 

[6:28] That led to James leaving a larger public company and joining Dr. Dorval in the diagnostic lab. They started with two people. Now the lab works with over 10,000 practitioners.

 

[8:00] KBMO Diagnostics offers the FIT or Food Inflammation Test. It is different from the C3d test. It doesn’t just look at what you are exposed to but also at which foods are causing inflammation.

 

[9:35] James did a Dry January where he exercised every day and did the KBMO Cardiovascular test and the FIT. Twelve years ago, James did the FIT and it indicated five or six foods. This time, the text indicated five foods. The test is highly accurate and reproducible.

 

[11:05] James educates the population about what they are exposed to and which foods cause them inflammation. James took an Everlywell IgG test that indicated over 25 foods, versus the FIT, that indicated five foods. Twenty of the foods identified by the IgG test are false positives.

 

[12:38] Dr. Dorval’s FIT uses a double screen to measure the whole immune system rather than just the front end of it, giving a more accurate result. The accuracy means fewer foods for the patient to eliminate.

 

[14:21] Sachin tested for 176 foods and for a leaky gut. The leaky gut test came back all clear. Certain foods showed up for Sachin. The two highest were cow’s milk and eggs. Then there were cauliflower and other foods he doesn’t often eat.

 

[15:21] Because it looks at the inflammatory response, the FIT is helpful for migraines, weight loss, joint pain, and skin-related issues. One patient with back acne learned to eliminate spinach to clear up the acne. You never know which food is going to be the trigger.

 

[17:21] The FIT also measures colorings and additives that are increasingly found in foods, supplements, and personal hygiene products. One 10-year-old boy was lethargic until benzoic acid was removed from any product he used. After eight weeks, his turnaround was remarkable.

 

[18:54] KBMO did a study on IBS patients and saw dramatic improvements. Migraines are another issue that shows remarkable improvements for patients who have suffered for years by eliminating a handful of trigger foods. It’s a game-changer.

 

[20:08] KBMO suggests for their providers to do a symptom checklist. What symptoms are patients living with, that they can eliminate by reducing their inflammatory burden via diet?

 

[21:00] The test is made simple to help the busy provider and their busy patients understand it and move forward on their journey from a healthcare perspective.

 

[21:36] Sachin looks at his FIT results as a way to know the foods to eliminate to reduce low-grade chronic inflammation and potentially feel overall better. Food doesn’t only affect the digestion or how you feel immediately. It can add to the load of inflammation in many systems.

 

[22:34] The two times James took the FIT over 12 years, the list of five foods to eliminate was very similar. Eggs, dairy, and wheat were the big three and then either clam or lobster were the top foods to eliminate. He says he’s a bundle of laughs at breakfast time.

 

[23:12] When James first bought the company, his triglycerides were nearly 500. After eliminating gluten, eggs, and dairy, within six months his triglycerides were 100 by taking out those three foods. He also dropped 15 pounds in six months. He was also exercising more.

 

[25:04] One of the things patients and providers like about the FIT is there’s no judgment attached. It’s not telling you your triglycerides, but what your trigger foods are. It gives patients the ability to take control of their health and do meaningful, understandable things.

[26:17] Sachin points out that knowing what to do instead of just knowing what’s wrong is a powerful position to be in. When the doctor tells the average patient “These numbers are off,” it doesn’t mean much to the patient. Sachin thinks everyone should have the FIT done.

 

[27:23] Sachin especially recommends the FIT for diabetics, autoimmune patients, cognitive decline patients, and IBS and digestive issue patients. James says mainstream evidence links leaky gut to “leaky brain.” Leaky gut may come from food inflammation.

 

[30:21] James believes 95% of patients most providers see have inflammation. The FIT is a great way to get to what might be causing some of that underlying inflammation burden to try to make the patients feel a bit more normal by taking control of their health.

 

[31:31] KBMO just did a study in Chengdu, China, on 75 patients with a variety of symptoms. They did a three-month elimination diet. Eighty-two percent of those patients saw an improvement from running the test. All KBMO did was provide the test plates. It’s a robust test.

 

[35:10] How can a practitioner get the FIT? To sign up, go to [email protected]. Mention Sachin’s name and that you heard about it on Perfect Practice. They will send you a one-page new account form. Fill it out.

 

[35:52] The FIT kits are free. They can be sent to your office or drop-shipped to your patients. Your patients can go to the KBMO website and order the kits but they have to have a C-dash number that is linked to you, the provider. Everything is provider-centric.

 

[36:25] Whether given in the office or the patient’s home, the kit is a finger stick. The patient kit includes two finger sticks. You or the patient mail it in. The patient kit has a stamped, self-addressed envelope back to KBMO.

 

[36:46] In seven to 10 business days, KBMO puts the results online for you, the provider, to see. You will have 14 days to go over the results with your client. Fourteen days after KBMO sends the results to the provider, the client gets an app to see the results on their phone.

 

[37:34] The app includes an individualized meal plan for your patient. If you need the 14-day consulting period to be longer, KBMO can adjust it for you so the app comes to the patient later. Having the results on their phone helps the patient to comply with the meal plan.

 

[38:05] With the app on their phone, patients love to share the results with their friends, talk about their amazing results following the meal plan, and encourage them to go to you to be tested. The app is great for marketing your practice to your patients’ family and friends.

 

[39:16] If anything’s elevated on the Gut Barrier Panel, there are a number of protocols KBMO has set up with a number of leading supplement companies and has also partnered with Fullscript. The Gut Barrier report will recommend going on a good gut-healing protocol.

 

[40:35] KBMO can either bill you, the provider, or bill the patient directly, as you choose. KBMO makes the process easy and transparent, and they walk you and the patient through it in a manageable way.

 

[40:55] Sachin tells how easy it was for him to take the test and get his results. He has his results on the app on his phone, which makes it easy to shop for his meal plan. Sachin notes that you can show the app to your server if you have questions about a menu.

 

[41:20] Sachin says it’s been a positive experience and KBMO’s customer service is exceptional.

 

[41:28] James adds that as a provider, when you run your first FIT on yourself or a patient, there is a doctor working with KBMO who can review your results with you. She has been running the test for 12 years in her practice.

 

[42:24] Sachin thanks James for being on Perfect Practice and he appreciates everything James is doing to make our lives as clinicians better. Clinicians can register for the FIT at [email protected] or on the website at KBMODiagnostics.com.

 

[43:25] “Here’s to avoiding eggs, for both of us, and here’s to amazing health and wholeness to everyone listening! Thank you so much!”

 

[43:33] James thanks Sachin. The time is much appreciated!

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Mindshare

Fullscript

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

Tweetables:

 

“When I first did the test many years ago, it was five or six foods, and today, it remains five or six foods. It’s interesting, the stability and the reproducibility of the testing over a 12-year period, in my case.” — James White

 

“We take this unique science and then re-educate the population about it, saying there’s a real advantage in knowing what you’re exposed to but if you take it to the next level, you’re going to find out which foods are causing you inflammation.” — James White

 

“We measure colorings and additives. Regardless of how clean a lot of us try and live these days, you’re going to get exposed to these colorings and additives. … They’re increasingly in supplements and personal hygiene products.” — James White

 

“Your patients can go to the KBMO website and order the kits but they have to have a C-dash number that is linked to you, the provider. Everything is provider-centric.” — James White

 

James White, CEO of KBMO DiagnosticsEmail: [email protected]

 

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dominik Martineau about his metabolic reboot practice and what he has done to get to his level of success. Dominik tells about the struggle he had with a weight loss practice that was not reliably producing great results for everybody. When he was looking for a better solution someone told him to call Sachin. Dominik explains how it went from there. The metabolic reboot program he adopted for his clients has grown consistently and his clients are engaged and happy with the results. Listen in for the details of how his practice works and how it grows. You may gain insight for your practice.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin introduces and welcomes Dominik Martineau, a student of the metabolic reset program who has adopted a version of the program for his audience. We will get insights from him as he tells us what he has done to grow his business successfully.

 

[1:53] Dominik is grateful to Sachin for the metabolic reboot program and the opportunity to grow his business to where it is. From their first phone call, Dominik knew what he needed.

 

[2:44] Dominik is based out of Quebec. He has taken the English-based program and adopted it into the French world. Not many people are doing a French-based metabolic program like this.

 

[3:18] When Sachin came into Dominik’s life, Dominik’s problem was not in attracting clients but in having a system that gave great results. He was not able to give great results to everybody.

 

[3:57] It was a big struggle for him. People paid him and he wanted to deliver good results for them. He was praying for a solution. Someone told him to call Sachin and he would help.

 

[4:19] Dominik booked a call. When they talked, Sachin told him how the metabolic program worked. Dominik started to use the metabolic program with his clients, and they all had results.

 

[4:36] That was the big switch for Dominik. He had more confidence in his selling because he knew he could give value to his clients.

 

[5:33] At the time, 80 percent of his clients were women. While he had had great results with some, many had hit a plateau and nothing he tried worked for them. It was frustrating.

 

[6:02] When Dominik started doing the metabolic reboot with clients, people lost 22 pounds or more. It was simple and it was easy to coach people on the program.

 

[6:25] People lost weight. The metabolic reboot is so easy that the habits you start in the metabolic reboot can be continued after the reboot, so people lose weight and maintain the loss.

 

[6:48] People gained confidence in the program because of the result and they referred Dominik. That’s when the business started to grow a lot.

 

[6:58] People on the program saw improvement in their energy, digestion, and inflammatory disease. Dominik transformed 1,500 people with the metabolic reboot. Dominik gets messages every day thanking him.

 

[7:31] Dominik has about 500 testimonials. When people pay him, he knows he can give value back. It has been the biggest game-changer of his business life.

 

[9:19] It’s great having the proven system of the metabolic reboot. Dominik says having an educational portal for information and video, has simplified his job. People enter the program and Dominik gives them the portal with a consult to follow up.

 

[10:14] Dominik gets clients by referral. He tells people during the sales call and in the program how they can refer to him. Dominik gives a $200 bonus to clients who are referred to him and a $150 discount to the person who referred them. His referrals have grown.

 

[11:51] Dominik’s program costs clients between $2,200 and $3,500. For a nine-week program, it’s six weeks of losing and three weeks of maintenance.

 

[12:29] People are happy when they lose weight but you have to create another vision for them after that. Dominik has a five-month program where he teaches people how to tone up, use supplementation, and take their nutrition to the next level.

 

[12:54] They follow up with a nutrition coach and a Pilates coach so they have a target after losing weight. Having a continuation program is great for the client. They like group coaching with Dominik every month. People feel they are valued in the discussion.

 

[15:30] Continuity is great for building trust with clients. They lose weight and have a new goal to pursue.

 

[15:46] Most people will choose the big program at first, not the small program. Increase your price with that continuity. Dominik had thought it would be impossible to sell a $3.5K program when he started three years ago.

 

[16:14] In one day, Dominik just made two sales of $3.5K with a daily routine. When Dominik started with the metabolic reboot, he sold it for $1.5K. He was alone. He didn’t have ads. Now, he has a team of six and more traffic. [16:49] If you are starting alone, at $1.5K you have a great profit for a great life. You’ll have profit to grow a team. When you grow a team, raise your price. Dominik started the program at $1.5K and got many referrals. It was great for Dominik and his clients were engaged.

 

[18:40] In the beginning, Dominik was targeting real estate people because they had money. Decide your audience. If you start putting your offer in front of people who don’t have money, you’re going to start questioning yourself. You’re putting the offer in front of the wrong people.

 

[20:59] Product-wise, it was Sachin who helped Dominik make the biggest shift. Dominik also recommends the book by Alex Hermozi, $100 Million Offers::How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No. It helped Dominik a lot.

 

[22:10] To get better at sales in the beginning, Dominik looked to Grant Cardone. He liked his energy and it helped him a lot. Now that he is successful, he uses his own approach.

 

[23:18] Dominik tells how his team grew from the start when he handled everything and was making $30K, to today. He hired his girlfriend first to reach out, do messaging, and book calls.

 

[24:14] Dominik saw the potential in that, so his second hire was another person to reach out and book calls for a program. One year after that, he hired a coach. Dominik was also coaching. When their schedules were full, Dominik hired another coach and then another coach.

 

[24:42] At that point the practice hit $100K in a month. Dominik hired a setter. Now they have two messengers for booking, one setter, and two coaches. It’s great to have a team of people that are aligned with your mission! Dominik has been able to travel while transforming people.

 

[25:35] Dominik suggests for your first hire, someone who will book calls to give you opportunities to sell, then coaches, and other setters, last.

 

[26:38] Dominik talks about using Facebook Messenger to message some of the 3,000 real estate agents on his Facebook page. Be consistent. Put your message in front of a lot of people who have money. When someone likes a post, he messages them, asking about their goals.

 

[27:44] That was the first strategy he used to get to $30K a month. It’s a lot of work, not automation.

 

[28:16] You want clients who have invested in themselves, in smaller programs. People who have tried everything are great people to enter your pipeline. They’re looking for a solution. He messages, “If you have tried everything to lose weight, this solution is really great!”

 

[29:20] Last year, Dominik traveled a lot, but he’s found that he’s more happy when he’s growing and working. His business has been at a comfortable point; now he wants to continue to grow it. There are so many people to help.

 

[30:06] Dominik just invested another $20K in a mentor program. He wants to hire another setter. He has a working ad system. His vision this year is to scale it and push himself to see where he can go, how many people he can help, and how his team can grow.

 

[31:17] Dominik used to run Facebook and TikTok ads. He recommends hiring for that, as it takes a lot of knowledge. First, he made the mistake of hiring low-quality people to run his ads. His accounts on Facebook and TikTok got shut down! It was tough, after that!

 

[31:59] Dominik hired someone great to run his ads and his ads are working well. The ads include video and copy with a link to his Facebook Group, creating a lot of volume going to his Group. His setter joins the Group and they have a webinar. They take consultations from that.

 

[32:36] That’s Dominik’s funnel. He puts about $200 a day into ads. He pays his advertising person $3K plus bonuses for sales. You want a professional to run your ads and not do it wrong to be shut down.

 

[34:05] Dominik has an email list of 20K people. He uses Datasun to send out 30 days of automated emails to the list. He recommends them. They make beautiful emails. Email is not where Dominik’s cash comes from, though; it’s from the setters creating appointments.

 

[37:07] If Dominik didn’t have his setter, the business wouldn’t grow. It’s an easy job when you have a process to do it.

 

[38:35] Dominik thanks Sachin for his example in showing him the life he wanted. To see more about how Dominik works, go on Facebook Relance Métaboliques, on YouTube: Dominik Martineau Relance Métabolique, and TikTok: Relance Métabolique. All in French.

 

[39:36] Dominik thanks Sachin for the opportunity to tell people about his work and inspire them. Sachin thanks Dominik and says he will post those links in the show notes.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Joe Polish

$100 Million Offers::How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No, by Alex Hermozi

Grant Cardone

Datasun

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

Tweetables:

 

“Sachin told me how the metabolic program works and when I began to use that with my clients, every client began to have results. That was the big switch. At that moment, I had more confidence in my selling because I knew I could give value to those people.” — Dominik Martineau

 

“People — when they finish losing weight, they are happy, but you have to create another vision after that for them.” — Dominik Martineau

 

“It’s really fun to have a team of people — it’s great — aligned with your mission! I can just leave those people and I have the time I want, when I want, to do whatever I want.” — Dominik Martineau

 

“That’s the vision for this year. Push myself to the next level and see where I can go with that and see how many people I can help and grow my team.” — Dominik Martineau

 

“” — Dominik Martineau

 

Dominik Martineau: FB: Relance Métabolique

YouTube: Dominik Martineau Relance Métabolique

TikTok: Relance Métabolique

 

Dominik Martineau bio

 

Dominik is a naturotherapist and the CEO of Metabolic Recovery.

He is dedicated to improving your physical, mental, and energetic health. He is passionate about personal transformation and excited to share with you tips, tricks, and knowledge to help you achieve your wellness goals.

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews chef James Barry about his career as a personal chef to celebrities, how James became interested in organ meats, what inspired him to formulate an organ meat supplement called Pluck, and his passion for eating the whole animal as our ancestors did. James shares some research on the nutritional density of organ meats. Sachin tells how he broke his meat fast to try Pluck so he would be able to endorse it with integrity.

 

Listen in for ancestral knowledge about eating for your biological needs.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin introduces James Barry, a chef, and the Founder of Pluck, a company that makes organ meat-based seasoning. James had talked about Pluck on the stage at Mindshare where he pitched the idea to Joe Polish in a mock Shark Tank.

 

[2:15] James has found a way to make the delivery of organ meats simple and tasty for anyone. Sachin had lunch with James at Genius Network and they had a fascinating conversation they wish they had recorded! They will try to replicate and extend that conversation in this episode.

 

[2:40] Sachin welcomes James Barry to Perfect Practice.

 

[2:51] James Barry has been a celebrity personal chef for over 20 years. He names some of his clients.

 

[4:25] There was no blueprint for how to be a celebrity chef when James started. When he began, he found a private chef who mentored him. James has mentored many chefs since.

 

[5:22] Most who hire a private chef do so because they value their appearance and their time. Many of us don’t value our precious time. Outsource things that are not your specialty.

 

[6:17] A lot of celebrities are just following the trend. They talk about the most popular book. When James first got out of culinary school the trend was the fat flush diet.

 

[6:38] James learned he had to understand the trending diet, not only by reading but also by working on the recipes to be very good at them. If a celebrity has a nutritionist, you need to execute that nutritionist’s instructions or already know that diet to work with them.

 

[7:11] James had also studied nutrition. When he cooked for celebrities, they only wanted to eat what he cooked for them. Everything was from scratch. He used Whole Foods. He didn’t use anything that was ultra-processed. He focused on clean eating and fairly low-carb.

 

[8:37] James describes celebrities as human beings with extraordinary attention focused on them, more money and resources, but just normal human beings. James treated them like regular people. He didn’t try to become their best friend. He focused on fulfilling his role, honoring their environment and privacy.

 

[9:50] James thinks that sometimes a celebrity’s “why” is a lot clearer. They know why they want to be healthy and mindful of what they put in their mouths. If you have a $300 million movie you are performing in and want to perform at your top, that’s a lot of pressure.

 

[11:17] James has always strived to support people where they are. He learned the culinary arts to help people. Humans are inconsistent and gravitate toward comfort foods. He wanted to improve the foods people were eating.

 

[12:01] James has researched organ meats and calls them the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet. He wondered how to get over the hurdles that people had, eating them. They struggle with the taste, sourcing, how to cook them, and what to do with them.

 

[12:22] On a trip, James’ two young girls got Shiga toxin from E. coli and couldn’t hold anything in. James was warned not to give them antibiotics as it would release the toxin faster and overwhelm them. The two-year-old got to almost skin and bones and recovered slowly.

 

[14:01] When she recovered, all she would eat was toast. James wanted something he could sprinkle on the toast to make it healthier. He realized we have freeze-dried organ meats but it’s in capsules because it doesn’t taste good. James wanted to make organ meats taste better.

 

[15:13] Deconstructing paté, James found the ingredients he needed to add to make it taste better. James recreated the taste of paté with dry ingredients. The result is Pluck. It contains five organ meats, which are the liver, heart, kidney, spleen, and pancreas from 100% grass-fed cows. [15:44] It removes the barriers. You can sprinkle it on anything. It tastes delicious. Most people don’t even realize they’re eating organ meat. James gets amazing feedback from parents who sprinkle it on everything.

 

[16:33] When Sachin and James were at lunch, James was giving people samples of Pluck. Sachin, though a vegetarian, decided to try it so he would know if he could endorse it to listeners with an honest opinion.

 

[17:26] Sachin tried it and it tasted quite good. He sprinkled it on his salad and enjoyed it immensely. Sachin’s honest truth is the product tastes amazing. It tastes good, it’s healthy, and it upgrades the things family members are consuming without them realizing it.

 

[19:00] James has learned that for healthy food to become a lifestyle, it has to be easy because humans will do hard things for a while, not that long, and it has to be delicious because we will eat something that tastes bad for a bit, but then we default to what stimulates our dopamine.

 

[19:42] James knew he had to make a product that was easy and tasted good. James also wanted eating the whole animal, not just the muscle meat, to be as easy as possible.

 

[20:16] Ancestrally, archeologist Dr. Bill Schindler, author of Eat Like a Human, said humans are the only species in the world that look to someone else to tell us what to eat. We have lost our way around our food. James speaks about ancient tribes eating the whole animal.

 

[22:59] James tries to get to what is simple, easy, and delicious, so you’ll eat it, feel better in your body, and treat others better. Once we feel better, we treat others better.

 

[24:06] The organ meats are raw frozen, processed to be a uniform size, freeze-dried, and powdered. There’s no flow agent added to it. It’s very pure. No one had combined them with spices before. The USDA and FDA didn’t know what to do with it.

 

[26:22] When it was called food, a USDA-approved food processor had to do the packing. James tried for eight months to find a processor who could handle the powder without contamination by air but no one could. James had to repurpose it as a dietary supplement.

 

[27:29] A lot of people don’t realize it’s a dietary supplement. The box on the back of the package says Dietary Supplement, not Nutritional Facts. So it’s an FDA product. James sources from New Zealand.

 

[29:47] New Zealand has very high standards. They have green grass year-round and cattle is one of New Zealand’s major exports. The whole animal is accessible. You can get brains in New Zealand, but not in the U.S. James is trying to source through the U.S. but it’s not possible yet.

 

[31:54] James launched Pluck during COVID-19. People didn’t know what it tasted like and he had no means of getting samples to people. He got on as many podcasts as he could and sent the product ahead of time to the podcast host for an honest assessment. That was the launch.

 

[32:50] The biggest questions James gets are “How much am I really getting?” and “How do I know it’s really working?” Our bodies know what they need. How do you get back to that intuitive knowledge? You won’t get it by swallowing capsules and bypassing biological communication.

 

[33:54] James says digestion starts with your eyes. You see something that looks good. When you get closer, you smell a good aroma. That triggers something in your brain. You take a bite and you taste it. Your saliva starts breaking it down. Your body decides if you want more.

 

[34:57] If you eat slowly, your body will tell you when to stop. Too many of our foods have more flavor than nutrition, and that confuses the body. Swallowing a capsule bypasses biological communication. Eating a salt tablet instead of tasting salt bypasses communication.

 

[36:18] James emphasizes to people that when you eat, your body will tell you how much you need or don’t need. Beef liver is huge and hard to eat in one sitting. If you eat a lot, it starts to taste different. If you keep eating when it doesn’t taste good, you’re not listening to your body.

 

[37:10] We’re already seasoning our food. Instead of an all-purpose seasoning, Seasonings have anti-caking agents and stabilizers, that are not good for us. Most blends will be high in salt. That’s the cheapest ingredient. Pluck gives you nutrients you do not get from seasonings.

 

[40:06] Organ meats are natural multivitamins. You don’t have to worry about eating it with food; it is food. Like supports like. The liver can support your liver. Orcas are known for attacking a shark and eating only one part of the shark, the liver. Animals in the wild go right for the organs.

 

[44:03] James cautions us about getting too “heady” about things. Our bodies have responses we can learn from as we listen. Our body knows. You can’t escape the truth your body will reveal. Follow it where it goes vs. your head leading you. James lauds Sachin for trying Pluck.

 

[46:45] Sachin agrees that the body never lies. Let’s put our dogma aside and give our body more of what it needs so that we can be around longer and be of service to others longer, as well.

 

[47:10] To get Pluck, go to EatPluck.com or get it on Amazon under Pluck seasoning or organ seasoning. Also on the website, there are some clinics listed where Pluck is sold. There are some places in Canada where it is sold. There are also recipes on the website.

 

[47:48] If you have any questions about organ meats and how to cook them, James’s mission is to help people learn how to eat that whole animal. They have resources about how to ease organ meats into your diet, besides Pluck.

 

[48:10] Sachin thanks James Barry for taking time out of his schedule to guest on Perfect Practice, spend time with Sachin, and share his passion with the audience. Here’s to an amazing epic year for James and the team at Pluck!

 

[48:32] Here’s to our listeners’ health, wellness, and happiness! Get your products at EatPluck.com, check your grocer; if you’re a practitioner, see if you can try out the products yourself first, and perhaps even encourage and endorse them to your patients, as well.

 

[48:55] James wishes everyone a fabulous year and please know to reach out. Pluck has affiliate programs and wholesale. “We’re always happy to answer any questions and to support the eating of the whole animal, so please ask.”

 

[49:15] Sachin thanks James and wishes him a wonderful rest of the day.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Mindshare

Genius Network

Eat Like a Human: Nourishing Foods and Ancient Ways of Cooking to Revolutionize Your Health, by Dr. Bill Schindler

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

Tweetables:

 

“Many of us don’t value our time. As I get older, I’m realizing that time is much more precious than I’ve ever valued it.” — James Barry

 

“If it tastes good and it’s good for you, and it’s easy to apply, why wouldn’t you use it? I’m not just talking about Pluck, I’m talking about anything!” — James Barry

 

“For health food to become a lifestyle, it has to hit two things. It has to be easy, … but then it also has to be delicious.” — James Barry

 

“Once we feel better, we treat others better.” — James Barry

 

“You can get too little of something, you can also get too much of something.” — James Barry

 

Chef James Barry: FB: Eat Pluck

Website: Eat Pluck

 

Bio: James Barry

 

James Barry’s 20 years in the culinary field started as a private chef cooking for celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Mariska Hargitay, George Clooney, Gerard Butler, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Barbra Streisand, and John Cusack. Most recently, James launched his first functional food product, Pluck, an organ-based seasoning. It's the first of its kind and an amazingly easy and delicious way for people to get organ meats into their diet.

 

James is also a published cookbook author having co-authored the recipes in Margaret Floyd’s book Eat Naked and co-authored the follow-up cookbook The Naked Foods Cookbook. He most recently co-authored the recipes in Dr. Alejandro Junger’s book, Clean 7.

 

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Tracy Gapin about his career, what inspired him to leave his urology practice and focus on precision medicine for men’s health, and some of the purposes of the Gapin Institute. Dr. Gapin talks about the success of the Gapin Institute, why he did a TEDx talk, and what his plans are for 2024. He also discusses his book, Male 2.0, and offers his High-Performance Health Handbook.

 

Listen in for some practical tips for transformation for your practice.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin introduces Dr. Tracy Gapin, M.D., a urologist, and the CEO and Founder of the Gapin Institute, a leader in precision medicine.

 

[1:21] Dr. Gapin is here to share some of the trials and tribulations he has gone through in becoming who he is today, setting up his practice, becoming a thought leader, an innovation leader, and somebody Sachin looks up to.

 

[1:38] Dr. Gapin has overcome mental, physical, and spiritual challenges to get to where he is today, with over 25 years of clinical experience.

 

[2:40] Dr. Gapin is reading a book on cardiovascular health and disease, by Dr. John Huston. Dr. Gapin is all about the science.

 

[3:25] Dr. Gapin explains his takeaway from the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). Things are constantly evolving. Dr. Gapin says it’s easy to get stuck on the business side. Don’t forget the science behind what you do and why you do what you do.

 

[4:16] Dr. Gapin mentions other conferences he attends regularly. He encourages you to stay focused on the constantly evolving science. Whatever your niche may be, you need to be able to provide outcomes. That comes from your scientific and medical knowledge and background.

 

[5:51] Dr. Gapin started as a urologist. His passion is men’s health. He became disillusioned with urology and looked for a better way to serve patients.

 

[6:53] Through the health challenges he experienced, Dr. Gapin found an amazing world of precision medicine, epigenetics, functional medicine, hormone optimization, peptides, and longevity. It changed his perspective on medicine. He became passionate about it again.

 

[7:50] Dr, Gapin was driven to make a change. It was scary to throw away a very lucrative career and practice and start over. But he felt like he had no choice because he found something he loved. He didn’t want to live the rest of his life being a miserable surgeon.

 

[8:15] It was a tough decision for Dr. Gapin. His wife supported him 1,000%. He made a decision, saved up some money, and started going through certification, courses, and conferences about eight years ago. That’s how it took off for him.

 

[9:13] Dr. Gapin's career change decision was an evolution. When he knew he was going to leave urology, he got some coaches and business development learning. He battled impostor syndrome, wondering if he was good enough to pivot his career.

 

[11:11] Dr, Gapin had a hard childhood. When he was five, his dad left. He never had a father figure. That may be why he’s drawn to men’s health and is passionate about being a dad. His kids are his “why” that drives everything he does. He’s trying to fix the childhood he had. Starting something new and different was overwhelming.

 

[12:54] Dr. Gapin advises new practitioners to stay true to who they are and what they want. Dr. Gapin once joined a Vistage group of entrepreneurs. One of them asked him “What do you want?” He thinks about that question almost every day.

 

[13:30] Dr. Gapin asks people who are starting what their ideal ending is and if what they do is aligned with that ending. There are many business processes. Dr. Gapin’s business now is high-ticket, low-volume, but at first, he was in the trap of selling many low-ticket items.

 

[14:30] It’s hard work to slow down, do some introspection, and understand what is right for what you want. The majority of courses are not making the seven figures you might assume they are. Don’t use somebody else’s idea. Pilot your life and make adjustments as you go.

 

[17:11] Dr, Gapin learned a question from Carl at Mindshare: What is the transformation that you provide? Does this thing that you offer solve that? If not, you can’t create the business you want to build.

 

[18:14] Dr. Gapin learned from J.J., don’t build it until you fly it. Build it while you’re flying it. Dr.Gapin first offered his programs to his existing patients. After he had a client book of business, he opened his facility, Gapin Institute. That applies to building a digital program, too.

 

[20:09] Dr. Gapin believes coaching is underappreciated. Dr. Gapin hired a business coach as he was preparing to transition his career. He was in two masterminds before Mindshare. Mindshare was great for him for three years. The one-on-one coaching sessions were the best.

 

[20:53] Sachin did a one-on-one call with Dr. Gapin several years ago and advised him to keep it simple. He still quotes Sachin’s advice to this day. Dr. Gapin has three coaches now and each provides different aspects of his business. You need a coach or guidance and support.

 

[23:04] Dr. Gapin’s wife has been instrumental for him as a support in hiring decisions and counseling him not to go after shiny objects. Some tech can be offered for sale to clients to use in their homes instead of buying it for the center.

 

[27:47] Dr. Gapin had a coach specifically to prepare for a TEDx talk. He had to come up with ideas to make it interesting, unique, and appropriate and do a lengthy application. Once he was accepted, he had to script it, practice it, and refine it. He had to deal with his nerves.

 

[28:37] It was nine months from Dr. Gapin starting the application process until he gave his talk. A lot of that is time waiting for a response. It was an amazing experience. It was empowering to share his perspective in his voice.

 

[29:35] If you have information or wisdom that could help somebody else, you’re selfish if you don’t share that with the world. Dr. Gapin loves sharing his message in front of groups now.

 

[30:35] Dr. Gapin wrote Male 2.0 when he was in his urology practice. Male 2.0 represents a new generation focused on the prevention of problems. Dr. Gapin lists many metrics we can track with electronic tools to generate health data.

 

[32:45] Dr. Gapin was a co-author with Dr. Melissa Petersen for the book The Codes of Longevity. Each author had to give their perspective on what are the secrets to longevity.

 

[33:19] Dr. Gapin attributes longevity to cellular efficiency by fasting for 16 to 18 hours once a week, building up to three to five days a week. Dr. Gapin fasts for 24 hours, once a week. He says it’s easy, once you get used to it.

 

[34:29] Blood sugar regulation is another critical factor in longevity. Poor sleep boosts cortisol, which boosts blood sugar. Get enough deep sleep. Managing blood sugar is critical.

 

[35:13] Oxidative stress slows down the mitochondria and the production of ATP as free radicals overcome your body’s anti-oxygen system. How can you improve this problem? The science of longevity is always evolving.

 

[35:09] Dr. Gapin’s business plan for 2025 was to open two new centers with partners but those partnerships were terminated. So 2024 will be a year of expansion and finding compatible partners. Sachin recommends the NEO Personality Test to find partner compatibility.

 

[42:26] Dr. Gapin received advice from colleagues (not coaches) to do things that didn’t align with his business model. Ask yourself. Who is your avatar, what’s the problem you are trying to solve, and does the thing align with that?

 

[46:26] Where are your clients in the sales process?

 

[45:48] Dr. Gapin’s last words of advice: Do one thing at a time, focus on your avatar, know how you differentiate yourself from others, and be able to articulate it. The biggest one is to have a very clear sales process and sales funnel. Dr, Gapin explains how a sales funnel is used.

 

[46:24] Where are your clients in the process? Is your client aware they have a problem? Do they know they have a problem but have no idea about a solution? Are they aware of solutions? Are they aware of your solution? You have to meet them where they are.

 

[46:53] At the end of his content, Dr. Gapin asks people to text the word HEALTH to 26786 for a free copy of his High-Performance Health Handbook with 15 tactics to have more energy, have better focus, lose weight, have better sex, and live longer. He gives away information.

 

[47:52] The prospect also gets nurtured with an email message of informational content every other day for eight days, so they’re more aware. He hopes they will eventually want to engage with his team and work with them. You have to meet people where they are.

 

[48:24] Use whatever lead magnet works for you. It can be an opt-in through text or your webpage so that you give them more information and nurture them along with content.

 

[49:59] We tend to undervalue what we’re providing. People who pay more are more invested and willing to commit more to an outcome. It takes the same effort to acquire a client, whether they pay 1X or 10X. Dr. Gapin raised his prices and the conversion rate stayed the same.

 

[52:56] Don’t try to justify your pricing like you’re selling a car. You’re selling an outcome. You’re selling a transformation, What is that worth?

 

[53:33] Sachin thanks Dr. Tracy Gapin for such valuable insights, and for his humility, vulnerability, authenticity, and leadership.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

Mindshare

Genius Network

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

 

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Betty Murray

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin introduces Dr. Betty Murray, the CEO and Founder of Living Well Dallas, a functional medicine center. Betty is a nutritionist and researcher who has helped hundreds of people to feel their absolute best, so she has had great success and prosperity.

 

[2:08] Sachin and Betty will focus on Betty’s methods for success and prosperity to help you succeed and prosper in your practice and life. Sachin welcomes Betty to Perfect Practice.

 

[2:52] Betty started her practice 20 years ago. In 2004, she did not find many clients for functional medicine. She bootstrapped her business with her part-time job. She didn’t have enough runway to make a lot of mistakes. She had to be more resourceful with her resources.

 

[4:58] In Betty’s clinic today, there are internal medicine, psychiatry, hormone replacement, clinical nutritionists, life coaches, counselors, and diagnostics. At first, her clinic was fee-for-service, and nobody was using coaching because they didn’t know its value.

 

[6:40] Betty had to let go of her belief that if she educated someone, they would find value in her program, and instead, create the value proposition and give it to them so they would find value. If the market is not buying your strategy, your strategy is wrong and you need to rearrange it.

 

[8:44] Always add value for your client first. When you give value to your customers, patients, and clients, you get rewarded. When you’re driving toward a value, and you’re giving people what they need and helping them understand what they need, people will value that.

 

[9:47] When you’re starting, the narrower you get with what you’re doing, whom you’re serving, and what problem you’re solving, the easier it is to stand out in that market. Don’t go bigger, faster, better and think it’s going to be more money. It’s complex. Betty has to spend more on marketing than others because she has more avatars. She has to spend more time on staff.

 

[13:45] Sachin says to keep it simple. Betty adds that if you have this burning desire to have a multi-disciplinary team, recognize that you’d better be a good business person or hire a good business person, which requires a runway of cash flow. It’s not a low-paying job. 

 

[14:57] Most of us in healthcare never had business training. Betty had a business degree before she came into healthcare. It’s still a concept until you get it into action. Being a 30,000-hour expert comes from experience, not from a book or an education.

 

[17:09] The Mosaic of Autoimmunity, by Dr. Yehuda Schoenfeld, is a textbook Betty has been studying. It’s probably the best textbook to explain the underpinnings of autoimmunity. Regardless of who our avatar is, all of us are going to be in the immune system.

 

[18:07] 10X is Easier than 2X: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less, by Dan Sullivan is the business-building book Betty recommends. It is easier and more effective to leapfrog from where you are to where you want to go than it is to make small changes.

 

[18:52] Betty recommends two personal/financial development books: Disruptor: How to Challenge the Status Quo and Unlock Innovation, by Alex Gonzalez, about innovation. The second book is Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, by Bill Perkins. It’s about not amassing money but using it to do good as you go.

 

[24:11] Betty tells how she grew her money mindset. As a child, she was determined to work and she falsified her birth certificate to get a job underage. She sees the world as abundant and if she lives in that abundance and does the right things, she will be rewarded for it. She doesn’t hesitate to spend money. He husband is cautious so she asked him to handle the finances.

 

[25:55] Sachin also has a story about going after what he wanted at a young age. He learned to cut hair by watching a barber and then opened a barber shop in his garage. Bety’s and Sachin’s experiences helped mold them into who they are as adults.

 

[28:57] Walter Isaacson wrote about Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and others who have changed the world. None of them had an easy life. Those things that are more difficult for us make us tenacious. Opening a practice outside the traditional medical establishment is also an adversity. Don’t keep a Plan B that’s easy to go back to. Keep marching forward, iterating, and changing.

 

[31:33] Whenever Betty is told she can’t do something or the world will beat her, that is when it’s “game on” for her. That guarantees she would act. Recognize that your challenges are also helpful.

 

[32:34] Justin notes that success is in doing things differently. Sally Hogshead said that different is better than better. Betty built a large, busy center. At first, she didn’t want to be the brand but learned that your brand is you. You have to be part of the brand. One year, Betty spoke 220 times. She showed up everywhere as the owner so people would know about the center.

 

[34:17] When people leave a practice it’s not from what happened but how it was handled. Every part of the customer experience must be planned and managed to make it extraordinary. If there’s a problem, own it, fix it, and apologize. Betty’s team out-executes everybody.

 

[35:37] When you want to stand out, look at the non-clinical stuff and double down on it all, from the emails to how the phone is answered. Those things will make up for a world of pain and will make you look better. Most practices shirk that, and people get mad about it.

 

[36:42] Betty tells about her hiring process. She starts with a matrix of requirements. Betty has a team member do the initial interviews to figure out if the applicant is a culture fit. Betty doesn’t want “yes people” but they have to be on board for her strategy. Betty has a “Volkswagen test.”

 

[38:34] If they pass the culture fit and the skill set, they come in to interview 12 to 14 of the practitioners. Finally, Betty interviews them. If she likes them, they come in for a working day. They get paid for the day and do a final interview with Betty. Betty is slow to hire; and quick to fire. Because of the extensive interview process, Betty doesn’t often have to fire.

 

[39:31] Betty tells about her first hire. It was an administrative assistant. Betty’s role was to bring people through the door. She didn’t want to spend billable hours doing unbillable work.

 

[42:09] Betty’s last piece of advice: If you’re a practitioner, you do not need any more certifications or training to do what you do. You need to do what you are trained to do.

 

[44:04]  Sachin warns against continual certifications. It’s a form of procrastination and it leads to imposter syndrome. The way you build the muscles is by doing the reps. If you get into a situation where you don’t know the answer, you have the resources to find it quickly.

 

[45:17] Betty got her Ph.D. not because she needed it for her business but because she wanted to dig into the research and get better at that, to prove this type of medicine works.

 

[46:12]  Sachin thanks Dr. Betty Murray for everything that she shared today. Betty mentions her practice Livingwelldallas.com, her website, Bettymurray.com, and her podcast Menopause Mastery. Sachin thanks her for sharing her wisdom.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done

In this episode, Sachin interviews Chris Kelly, backcountry outfitter and friend, about the benefits of being in nature with a group, disconnecting from technology and using primal survival knowledge and skills, supporting each other, and growing naturally. Listen in for ways to embrace the natural world and put aside the office for a while.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin introduces and welcomes Chris Kelly to the Perfect Practice podcast. Chris is an outfitter and Sachin’s outdoor mentor, friend, and guide in so many ways.

 

[2:11] Sachin met Chris on a three-day group camping trip in Algonquin. Chris and his brother Kieran involved everyone in meaningful, positive ways. Sachin was so impressed, he brought a group of his friends the following year for another amazing trip.

 

[3:46] The Time we spend with people is magnified in a backcountry camping experience over multiple days. Sachin learned more on a four-day trip than on a three-day trip.

 

[4:55] Sachin points out that your business can never grow bigger than you. You’re like the trunk of a tree and your business is a branch coming off of that tree. Grow yourself to grow all the branches of your life, including your business. Part of that process occurs when we disconnect and go back to the essence of who we are.

 

[6:37] Chris describes the moment on a paddle when the person he was paddling with told him that his trips were transformational. It was an epiphany. People can rewrite their stories. They take down barriers they have put up. They stop telling themselves “I can’t,” knowing “I did.”

 

[8:41] In the backcountry, there are no services, electronics, or artificial lights. On the first day, you find your footing and it seems to be going in slow motion. In a new environment, you’ve got to pay attention to everything. If you twist your ankle, you’re a liability. The environment brings you new ways of thinking.

 

[10:16] When you’re out there, you’re a different person, entirely. There’s so much onboarding of these skills that we have from being hunter-gatherers for 99.9% of our existence. You might think portages are scary but you navigate it with ease. It’s amazing how we adapt. You’re breaking an autopilot. You have an intense presence.

 

[12:02] Taking high school kids to the backcountry for four days removes them from their devices. When they get home, they don’t want to see their phones. You see a shift in their behaviors. In the case of an emergency, Chris had a satellite phone available.

 

[14:05] Coming back from the first trip, Sachin realized he would rather paddle for three hours than drive for three hours to get home, it was such a magical experience that changes you in so many ways. It makes you tough; it softens you. Sachin describes the magic of seeing the sun for 15 minutes after five cloudy, rainy days.

 

[17:04] Chris says you build a relationship with nature. It’s a reflection of your relationship with yourself. As people return to the backcountry, they become more themselves. They become more grounded. Families experience great beneficial changes. Everyone’s accomplishing something together. Their stories wash away in community and love. This carries back to life.

 

[20:31] Sachin shares a reflection learned from the second trip when portaging uphill to the next lake, carrying packs or canoes. Everyone plays a role, big or small, glorious or not glorious.

 

[23:37] Chris talks of finding power in being humbled and disempowered and ultimately finding fulfillment. Finding wood to build a fire, feeling the heat of the fire, and cooking food on it is primal and satisfying. Everything you put energy into provides energy.

 

[24:33] One of Sachin’s goals for 2024 is to get his team up there. His wife is hesitant because in the backcountry there are no bathrooms. Some on his team are eagerly looking forward to it. You bond on a backcountry camping trip in a way that you don’t find going to dinner together.

 

[26:18] Chris tells how to prepare your team for a backcountry trip with him and Kieran. They set you up with a packing list. You show up with a weekend bag, and they take care of the rest. Top-end gear, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, tents; you’re going to be warm, cozy, and dry. High-end, ultra-light canoes. Hop on a call and you won’t regret it.

 

[27:13] Some people’s highlight of camping in the backcountry is using the Thunderbox, the sun peeking through the canopy, hearing the call of the morning birds, and the lapping of the water on the shore. Chris does a guided meditation about this. It’s not the problem, it’s the attitude on the problem.

 

[28:21] Chris describes the benefits of getting your team together in the backcountry. You’re putting work aside and getting to know each other as individuals. Handling hard things and fun things together grows a deep-rooted connection. Trust is formed on these trips. It’s a great opportunity for inspiration to come through outside of the workplace structure.

 

[31:07] You’re outside your comfort zone and so you’re more vulnerable but also supported by the people you’re spending time with. That allows you to show up at the office in a completely different way. On the trip, you are supporting people who might be lower or higher on the ladder. We have titles for our jobs but we are all humans.

 

[32:11] Chris cites the Dr. Chatterjee podcast. When we’re making decisions, we’re either making a decision to find happiness or making decisions from a place of happiness. The difference is drastic. Decisions you make from happiness are legacy decisions about your life. Chris uses Sachin as an example of making decisions from happiness after a trip.

 

[34:33] We all have nature around us. Have a plant in your house, at least. Find a sit spot. Sit quietly for five minutes, closing your eyes and tuning into your other senses. Open your eyes and see everything with a new lens. It’s magnificently impactful. There’s something special about going back to the same place daily. The birds and animals will accept you in their world.

 

[36:42] Chris describes some weather experiences and even a moving encounter with a mother and baby moose on backcountry trips. Sachin describes an unplanned trance experience he felt with others at the lake’s edge.

 

[40:31] There are amazing sunsets. Being out there so long, Chris is confident in feeling whether it will rain soon or not. He shares an experience of imagining himself as a sapling growing up in the forest and growing through the canopy of massive trees. That inspired him to start Driftwood with his brother Kieran. Guiding exclusively gives him renewed energy.

 

[44:26] Chris learned from Majeed on a trip that nature is full of infinite intelligence. He feels that if you open up to that, it does come through. He and Sachin are walking examples of it.

 

[45:08] Sachin gives his endorsement to Chris as a life-changing companion on a trip like this. It is crucially important who you go with to lead you on the journey. Sachin urges every practitioner or individual listening to this to consider this as a valuable team-building, friendship-building exercise, or even for building yourself.

 

[46:08] To reach Chris and Kieran at Driftwood Paddle, go to their website, fill out the simple form, and let them know what your dreams are and what you’re envisioning. They will book a call and have a Zoom meeting with you to show what they can offer and make sure it’s the right fit. Every trip is curated toward the group or individual, including diet and itinerary.

 

[46:53] Chris and Kieran and the two other guides that work with them, Troy and Craig, are mature, with adaptive life experience. They are passionate about backcountry camping. There are barriers to backcountry camping. The guides provide food, water, shelter, safety, and security. You work on the needs of loving and belonging, self-realization, and team cohesion.

 

[48:36] Sachin thanks Chis for his time today and his contribution to this episode of Perfect Practice.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

 

More about your host Sachin Patel

How to speak with Sachin

Go one step further and Become The Living Proof

Perfect Practice Live

[email protected]

To set up a practice clarity call and opportunity audit

 

Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done