Legacy in Action: Matt Stern’s Fight for Health Equity

Welcome to the Legacy All Stars podcast. We feature inspirational stories from people who dedicate themselves to helping others. Here is your host, Alan Pavloski.

All right, welcome back to the Legacy All Stars podcast where we spotlight remarkable individuals who are building lasting impact beyond the game and beyond the bottom line. I'm your host, Alan Pavloski. Today's guest is someone who has committed his career to transforming lives through access and equity in healthcare. I'm joined by Matt Stern, founder and CEO of My Start Health, a platform that is revolutionizing access to life changing medications. Additionally, Matt co founded the Cheat Code foundation which specializes in training clinicians on life changing mental health techniques to help underserved communities. With a background that spans across digital health care, digital marketing, and tech enabled care delivery, Matt is the kind of legacy builder we love to feature on this show. Someone who saw a gap in the system and decided to step into it with purpose. Whether it's redesigning health programs or mentoring the next generation of health leaders, Matt is laying the foundation that could reshape the future of health equity in this country. Let's dive into his journey, the founding story of My START Health and the movement he's building. One patient, one family, one community at a time. Welcome to the show, Matt.

Thank you so much, Alan. That was incredible introduction.

Yeah. Great to see you.

Good to see you too.

Let's start with your journey. What sparked the passion for your health equity initiatives and how did it evolve into my START Health?

Yeah, I would say it all started with my dad. You know, honestly, he was my dad was my hero, he was my biggest fan. And he was also a man that really struggled. And you know, even though he was there for me every day, every game, like never missed a beat, behind the scenes, he had a silent struggle with bipolar and his struggle with that translated into physical health issues as well. So it was this combination of mental health and physical health issues that he battled and he wound up passing away at 64, which was just far too young. And I really believe that had he had access to.

Goodbye Sienna, I love you.

We'll take that. Yeah, we'll take that. On this show, we love to have a family of all.

So, you know, he.

I really believe that if he had access to what we're doing at Cheat Code and with My Start Health, he would still be here today and he would be the best grandfather Sienna could ever ask for. And you know, that makes me want to cry in this moment, but it's also everything to why I'm doing what I'm doing what I'm doing today.

Yeah. I mean you and I have had some private conversations about this and, and your story is really touching and I appreciate the emotion and the passion that you share on these subjects. I mean it really is what, what creates that authenticity in your vision. So compliments to you, compliments to your family and what you're doing to make a difference. Thank you. On a personal note, there was a recent passing of a friend, John Brinkus, who founded Sports Science.

Oh man.

And that was a battle with depression and with mental health issues. So look, it's ubiquitous. We have to deal with this as a society and I really feel like what you're doing could make a big difference, so.

Absolutely. Yeah. We had a conversation, Dr. Mondo and Jimmy, our other co founders in the Cheat Code foundation this week about John and Wow. Just to think that there are still guys in that position that have made that kind of an impact on the world and still don't feel like there's any out besides taking their life. It's absolutely what drives us in this mission.

Yeah. And spent a lot of time with John over the years and one of the most jovial and beautiful souls you could possibly imagine. So it's a sad week in that, in that regard, I mean. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I have some really good friends that are even closer to John than I was, of course. But I, I really want to want to call attention to this at a much deeper level as a result of some of the real struggles that people have had that have been in my circle. So, you know, thank you for doing what you're doing. Before launching my Start Health, you were already involved in mission driven work. What was that aha moment that made you realize that the current system wasn't working for the people who needed it most?

Yeah, I mean it's, it's conversations like the one we're having right now. Right. And individuals like John for sure. But this is something that for me has kind of been something that's bubbled up with me over the last. I'd say like I've been in business now for 20 years, but I'd say throughout every one of those years I feel like it was bubbling up and building up inside of me that I needed to be doing more mission driven work in full transparency. I think the first 12, maybe 15 years of my career was all about how much money I could make and it was finding pathways to doing that. And a lot of that stems from my own trauma and the way that people my life shifted at a young age. But on the other side of that, you realize that you can do both, that there are ways to make incredible money and make amazing impact in the world. And so they're not mutually exclusive, right? They don't have to be. No.

You can do well by doing good, too. And that's important for people to realize for sure.

And it took me a while to figure out that combination and to find that balance and to find businesses that where I could accomplish both those things. And it was really exiting another business where I was really focused on just making money and meeting Dr. Mondo at the exact same time he was. Dr. Amano Gonzalez, was a practicing clinician up in Sacramento, had this vision for changing the world. And during COVID I was doing these peloton rides with one of my good buddies, Jimmy Spencer, who's also in the sports world and, you know, one of the leaders at LeBron James's media company. And he was like, I think you and my buddy Mondo would just hit it off. Would you do a call with him? And so we did a call one morning and I talked to Mondo, and immediately, you know, our hearts connected on so many levels. And we had a lot of synergies as well in our experiences with our dads, specifically. That became a connection point for us. And he came down to San Francisco and did a session with me and just blew me away. You know, I. I had been in therapy for a lot of my life, and in one session, he cracked me open in a way that years of therapy hadn't accomplished. And I just told him in that moment, I was like, anything I can do to support you, I'm in like you tell me what you need, I'm here for you. I'll help you out. Because everyone needs to experience this, not just me, not just the athletes that he was working with, but, like, we need to get this out to the world. And so that was the start of cheat code. And from that point forward, I really decided that more of my decisions and all of my decisions, hopefully, going forward were going to be based on impact as much as they were profitability. And so we've been working together now for five years on this mission with cheat code. And we still are scratching the surface. I think we've made incredible impacts in different communities, but we have a whole nother level to go to. And then, you know, out of that, I also had this calling on this opportunity with my start, and I saw the alignment, right? I saw the alignment of what I've done in the marketing world and the ability to drive growth in a business and tie that to these incredible life changing products that are coming up in the world where, you know, you can really save someone's life. You know, again, coming back to my dad, like, my dad always carried extra weight with him, and it was mental weight, but it was physical weight that he carried with him. And that led to diabetes. And we know now that the second you get that diabetes diagnosis, you're gonna lose 16 years off your life. And so how do we get ahead of the curve and just. And stop this? Right. I mean, a lot of that is the education that's coming around diet and exercise. I think just it continues to become more prominent in our society. But at the same time, some people are just stuck. And these amazing peptides and these GLP1 medications that are coming out into the world are just changing millions of lives right now. And so if I could again marry my marketing mind to a business like that, that could really change lives. It was like another light bulb moment for me of something that I had to go do.

Yeah. Along those lines, how would you describe my Start Health's mission in one sentence?

It's access to life changing medications one patient at a time.

Yeah.

And we're really trying to provide that level of personalized care that regardless of what your path has been to this point, we feel like we can hold your hand through this process and get you on a better track to extending your life and expanding your.

Yeah. Expanding your health journey.

You talked about this, but you focus a lot on early intervention. Why is that so important to you? And when you meet young people where they are physically and developmentally, how does that change. Change outcomes?

Yeah, I think with young people specifically.

There'S really two sides to it. Right. You know, our country really shifted in 2020 when the COVID epidemic hit. It became very prevalent that there were mental health issues, that there was this mental health epidemic like crisis in the country that was escalated by people being isolated in their homes. And you saw that play out, especially with young people as they shifted from going to school and being socially connected to being truly isolated every day in this. And I'd say it's for older people too. Right. This work from home environment that pulled us out of our social normal, social engagement and pulled us in front of screens constantly. And a lot of that hasn't shifted back. And so it just, it exposed something that was always there. You know, this is my take on it. And so, you know, making it. Our thing at cheat code is making it cool. Making mental health cool.

Right?

Like, that's the basic premise is how do you make it approachable? How do you make it swaggy? How do you make it something that you know by looking at your favorite athlete? If their favorite athlete's working on their mentals, then, like, I want to work on my mental health too. You look at it as a level up and as something that's, you know, empowering, not something that's negative. And that's the shift that I believe we can have in this younger generation because they're actually way more open to the conversation than definitely my parents were. Definitely. Even our generation, my generation, there's still dudes that are like, too bro to talk about therapy. And so I think that's what I mean.

And that's changing a lot too. Right? I mean, there's some very brave and courageous athletes that have put themselves out there. I can name a few that I know personally, like Bryant McKinney, former NFL player, and Ryan Mundy. And there's. There's others that have just really put them, put themselves out there really to make a difference and to show people that it's okay and it's not. No need to be stigmatized over wanting to approach your mental health with clarity.

You got it? Yeah. And that's what it's been all about for us, is how do we continue to use these incredible platforms that these athletes have to get it out there and show that the mental work is the next level of this game. Physically, we all approach sports in a very similar way, but the guys who take it to another level are the guys that are doing the mental work as well.

Yeah. I mean, Kevin Love's another one I missed, but there's just a lot of good examples of courageous athletes that are now willing to put themselves out there in ways that are helping others. And I really admire that personally.

It is. Yeah. Using that platform to reach younger people that look up to these individuals is an absolute game changer for all of us.

Yeah. What are the biggest challenges you face in trying to transform traditional healthcare delivery systems?

Oh, there's so much entrenched in our healthcare system that makes it difficult. You know, I. I really believe that at the top, we may be starting to see some of that shift, but there's still such a huge way to go in that big pharma, big food, big corporations really control a lot of our policies in this country and control a lot of the three letter organizations that determine what people have access to and what they don't. Have access to. And that is so firmly entrenched in our society that I think it's going to be a long curve to shift it. But we're starting to see some cool things.

At a government level.

That I think could start to shift some of these policies.

I think, you know, I don't, I don't want to get too deep into it, but like the new surgeon General, Casey Means is a great example of that. By selecting someone who's a naturopath doctor, you know, food first kind of doctor is a really big shift for our government. And I don't know what kind of ability she's going to have to unwind some of the, you know, stuff that's entrenched in our system. But it's an amazing step in the right direction, putting someone in that spot that has the beliefs that she has, that's producing the content that she's producing all around it. Starting with our food system and going against the companies like the Frito Lays of the world that have just relied on keeping us sick and keeping our kids sick through the cereals and the snacks and all the stuff that we just normalized over the last 30, 40 years that now we're seeing play out in obesity, in diabetes at a very young age, through our lives, is all stuff that needs to shift. And unfortunately, like, that's all tied into the big pharma industry as well, that, you know, get us sick with our food and then keep us on medications that keep us sick and keep us in the system. And, you know, you're on lifetime medications and that's again, mental health and physical health. You see it play out like, you know, there's not enough. There's more and more evidence coming out around meditation and the powers of meditation to shift anxiety. I'm, like, one of the biggest proponents of breath work and meditation because I've played it out in my own life. I did battled anxiety for probably 16, 17 years from college on and tried medication, did medication. It worked. It was great. But only masked it right. Didn't give me any tools to actually shift the chronic anxiety that was going on in that pressure in my chest that I would feel every day when I woke up. And it was breath work, it was Wim Hof breath work. And it was actually Jimmy again, my co founder at Cheat Code, who turned me onto it. He's got a really simple app and you just, you wake up and you breathe and, like, it's the simplest concept, but, man, like, I got on that and meditation for, consistently, for probably like six months. And now I can deal with it. Now if it shows up, I can actually address it physically and move it through my body and move on with my day. And so it just doesn't show up every day anymore. And so those kind of things. Right. Like I think this idea that we are in control of what we put into our bodies, what we put into our minds and we can actually shift the system is going to start to create long lasting change in our Society. But after 30 or 40 years of this being entrenched in our, you know, from again like the core roots of politics in our system and how we operate day to day, it's going to take a while to unwind it. But I have hope.

Yeah, more than just politics, just the training and the lack of knowledge that people have been conditioned to have is also a factor. For sure.

Yeah, well said. Yeah. I mean, I think Casey Means touches on that as well. Right. If you listen to any of her content or pay attention to her content. She left the traditional healthcare system because she realized as a trained clinician and going through surgical residency that she wasn't getting to the root of the problem. And it's cool, it's cool to see the parallels in her content and actually the content that like that Dr. Mondo does my co founder and cheat code because it's all about getting to the root. How do you address the root of someone's trauma that they carry with them every single day so that you can start to actually create real change in their lives?

For sure. How are you using technology or data to support your mission and, and is it still human centered?

Yeah, I mean it has to be a high touch solution. We're definitely trying to use technology around all the AI technologies that are coming out to really personalize the level of data that we have and the level of insight that we have so that we can tailor the care and personalize the care back to the individual and really meet them at that level. But at the same time there has to be this human component. So we are still staffing individual care coordinators and patient care advocates that can hold your hand through the process and make sure that you're heard and you feel. Felt. Because people still need that. Right. We kind of touched on that. The isolation piece and feeling human connection, I think still is a game changer in every business that you just can't replace with AI. So yeah, we're doing both. You know, you got to have technology to be able to scale a company these days. And I want to be an AI First Business. At the same time, I recognize that that human touch really matters.

Yeah. How has your own leadership evolved since founding my start? Health. And what keeps you grounded? Other than we've talked about meditation, but what else keeps you grounded?

It's a good question.

This is really the first venture where I've gone truly out on my own. I don't have backing of business partners. I have one partner in the business who's a doctor who really believed in me from the beginning on this mission, but he's silent in the business. It's really me day to day, making all of the decisions. So I'm still, you know, learning and I'd say failing every single day. But I think I'm getting to the point with my leadership where.

You know, there's an authenticity to my experience. Also, why, you know, I wanted to come on the podcast and share my story with you is because I feel like I'm reaching this point, you know, 20 years in, at 42 years old, now with the experience under my belt, where I have a real, authentic experience of everything I've done and all the failure along the way and all the lessons. And now I feel like I have the ability to really set a vision, trust my team to execute that vision and just continue to lean into that every day. And, you know, I believe that.

Yeah, I see it play out right. Like, I. I just fully have leaned into trusting my instincts. And as I continue to lean into that, I see the outcomes and it's working. So that's great. Trying to share that with myself.

All right, we're going to move on to what I like to call the legacy round. That's what the show is all about. What does legacy mean to you personally, and how do you hope your work will be remembered or carried forward?

Yeah, legacy to me means what people will say about you at your funeral. And it sounds dark sometimes when I say that to friends, when I say, like, I think about my death, but I do pretty often think about what that means and what my legacy will be when I leave this earth. And.

So to me, it starts with my daughter.

I know how much I carry my dad with me still today, 13 years later. And I know that I will have that impact on her life because I'm here every day and I'm in it with her, and I'm so committed to that legacy. I think that piece of what your kids carry forward is the largest piece. And then it comes, you know, to your. Your wife and your friends and, you know, I believe and business partners Like I, I really treat a lot of my business partners are my great friends. So, you know, I'd like to believe that the way I conduct myself in business and in my personal life are very, are the same. Like I am who I am and I show up the same way whether, you know, we're doing a deal together or we're playing golf together. And I would hope that means that there's going to be a lot of people there. You know, like I, I hope people show up and they have a lot to say about the smile and warmth and love and compassion that I brought to them and the care that I brought to them and it's all I can do.

Yeah. So let's talk about call to action here. If a listener wanted to support your mission, whether they're a parent, educator, athlete or investor, what's the one thing they can do right now?

I would say reach out to me directly and the team at Cheat Code. I think Cheat code is so well positioned to make impact in underserved communities. And so if you care about your community and you care about getting access to game changing mental health services, Cheat code is the solution for that. And we're really always looking for strategic partners in that way from a financial perspective because it costs real money to train clinicians to be in the community to do the work that we do.

So yeah, we need support, we need financial support, we need true partners and communities that want to make an impact. And yeah, I think that's a great way to do it. I'm always about.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Another question. What? You're deeply embedded in the social impact and health innovation space. Who else do you believe is doing amazing work right now? We talked about a few of the athletes that I'm acquainted with. Who else is doing amazing work right now that deserves more visibility?

Good question. Yeah, I've already talked about Dr. Mondo Armando Gonzalez and Cheat Code. I mean he's doing it every day.

Also. I got a good one. Noel Felix. Noel Felix is a former NBA basketball player who is changing lives every single day in his hometown of Fresno, California. And he's a guy, so such a crazy story how we met, but I got to meet him. He, he was my Uber driver.

It was unbelievable. Like I get into this car and there's this guy, he's pushed all the way back. He's probably 6 foot 8, 6 foot 9, so there's only room basically next to him. He's driving, but I'm in the back seat and he's basically sitting next to me and we proceeded to talk for like an hour and a half while I took this long ride from San Diego to Long beach and got to know him really well. And so it was such a cool life moment because we've just, we've stayed connected from that moment forward. And him and his wife started a business called Give Culture foundation and they go into schools and they work closely with kids and communities to change lives every single day. And in terms of a mission driven individual and just completely committed to changing the lives of young people, he is it. He's up there with the best I've ever met. And so, yeah, if you check out Give Culture, that's Noel Felix and he's amazing.

That's fantastic. I'm going to definitely have to check that out. Matt, I really want to thank you for showing us what it looks like to lead with purpose, humility and vision. You've demonstrated it to me in many ways. We've talked before and I really admire the mission that you have. You are a true Legacy All Star. I'm Alan Pavloski signing off for the Legacy All Stars podcast. Join us next time. You could find all of our episodes@legacyallstarspodcast.com or you can simply log in and subscribe on YouTube. Please do so. It helps us gain exposure for these really deserving individuals. Have a nice day.