73 - Elevating Wellness Through Cupping Therapy and Stress Management with Soul Detox's Moe Widdi

Welcome to Listening with Leaders. I'm Doug Noll, lawyer turned peacemaker. I teach executive leaders how to listen to emotions rather than words so that they can become the leaders everyone wants to follow. And I teach those same leaders how to be authentically present, available, and connected to their families despite being insanely busy. I have learned that we are 98% emotional, and only 2% rational. Learning how to listen to emotions is, in my experience, the foundational skill of life. Stick around to the end of the show and I'll reveal how you can be on our next guest in 15 to 20 minutes. So let's get started.

Mo Witty, welcome to Listening with Leaders. You are the CEO and, and founder of Soul Detox, which we're going to learn all about. And it can be found at getsouldetox.com.

Yes.

Good. So, so tell us a little bit about your backstory.

My backstory. So my background in education is fitness science. So I've studied everything from like prehab or rehab down to training high-performing athletes, right? And everything in between. And for me, what I realized is, you know, a lot of the times a lot of these clients were coming in and they would, you know, be consistent with the training, etc. But, uh, there was a lot of other components in life that were missing, such as like managing stress and how to like detox and how to like rest and recover. And a lot of times that's what was stopping their full progress, right? That's where I really also planted the seed to be able to really educate people about their overall wellness approach, right? Because once again, and you know this yourself, Nothing in life is isolated, everything is all interconnected, right? One of those things is of course, you know, spirituality and the cleansing of oneself. And again, there's a lot more to it, you know. Uh, you know, I've been doing this for over— it's actually my 5-year anniversary just hit a few days ago of doing the toxin pulling, which started out as like a hobby. But it was actually really— this might sound really crazy, but it was when I— during prime time COVID actually, where I was doing it on clients that were just like, had a hard time breathing and stuff. And, you know, we would cleanse them and they would feel immensely better. So that's really what my calling was, not to kind of ramble too much, but that's where I really sat down and thought to myself, I was at a crossroads. I had a high-quality sports drink that I was a startup of at that time too. It was during a week of lockdown. We're about to get $300K investment investors. And, you know, I had two heavy hitters from Coca-Cola on my team at the time. So I dropped that whole startup and started Solitox because I knew, just especially after that experience, the immense impact can have on people's lives.

So you abandoned one project to start up another during, during the pandemic, which I'm sure happens to a lot of people.

You sometimes jump ship because purpose shifts, right? So to speak.

Well, I did that too. I mean, I was a trial lawyer for 22 years and went back to school and got my master's degree in peacemaking and conflict studies. And at one point in the year 2000, gave my law firm, my partners, one week's notice, left $10 million on the table, and walked away from it all to become a peacemaker.

Amazing. I actually did read your, uh, your, your history, which is really impressive, right? And again, to do something like that takes a lot of courage.

Yeah, but, but it was absolutely the right call.

Absolutely. In life, you know, I always talk about this, and I'm sure that you also know this, especially, you know, viewing some of your content, is purpose is everything.

That's right.

You know, a lot of many years— I'm about to turn 35, but throughout majority of my 20s, I was still kind of like jumping all over the place, didn't really know what my purpose was. And it's really when you wake up in the morning that you know, hey, you know what, this is what my purpose is and this is what my duty in life is, right? So again, I really applaud you for doing what you do. It really is, you know, inspirational.

Well, thank you. Tell us a little bit about Soul Detox. New York, right? Correct.

So we're located in New York City. We're currently, uh, expanding as we speak. The goal, God willing, is to be all across the United States. And really, the name Soul Detox comes from the inspiration of the actual spiritual practice of toxin pulling. It's also known as wet cupping or hijama. Have you ever tried any type of cupping before in your life?

Cupping?

Yeah. So basically, my wife—

my wife is a doctor of Oriental medicine.

Oh, beautiful.

And, uh, she's a sound healer and a sound and a spiritual counselor. And yeah, she is. I— and I have been cupped by her, and I've also been cupped by um, chiropractors.

Amazing. Okay, great. So you have some sort of introduction to it, which really— it was Michael Phelps who made dry cupping popular in the United States. But what a lot of people don't realize is, so the difference between a dry cupping and toxin pulling, wet cupping, etc., hijama, is technically one, which is dry cupping, is considered a controlled inflammatory response.

Huh.

While wet cupping or toxin pulling is considered a controlled injury response. So when someone dry cups, you're creating that negative pressure, which then sends a signal to the body to bring anti-inflammatory agents, which helps reduce tension and pain. The only thing is it's a short therapeutic feel, but the toxins still remain in the human body.

Okay.

So with the toxin pulling or wet cupping hijama, you're taking out the stagnant waste that literally looks like a thick jelly. And when they looked at this under a microscope, they found that it was dead blood cells, irregular blood cells, basically the sitting in the body coming out, which is how the body naturally heals itself.

And, and so, so this wet cupping is—

where's it, where is it, where is it done on the body?

You can literally almost do it anywhere on the body. Now there is also proper ways how to approach it. And this is actually one of the many purposes of Soul Detox, is to implement a gold standard in the United States. It's not a regulated practice, right? You know, many people kind of do it here, there. People do out of their basements, out of community centers, you know, very private, nothing serious. But there's no gold standard, there's no regulation in the United States. And that's what Soul Detox is implementing.

So you're building up the practices and the procedures to get replicable results, um, with your, with your, with your clients and customers.

Correct, correct. And there is, you know, so I've had people come to me because what the way it works is you have to do very superficial scratches or incisions. And just like how everything in life, you can have a low-caliber approach or a high-caliber. Chiropractor, same thing. Physical therapist, same thing. Acupuncturist, massage therapist, there's high caliber and then low caliber.

Right.

So same exact idea with this, you know, you can cut deep by accident if you don't know what you're doing. You could, you know, overly, uh, what is it, uh, create tight, uh, negative pressure with the cups, which can then feel really uncomfortable. So you can even do too many cups at once. So this is where the proper protocol that we're implementing right now and structuring is needed so that way people can safely enjoy the experience.

And where are you finding the technicians that can do this work?

So I personally learned from, uh, international sources, from like South Africa, from the UK, uh, all around the world really. But one thing that we also did was there's, there's 3 different approaches that I've seen. You have old school, you have the Chinese approach, and then you have the kind of like new New Age approach. We do like a, a hybrid of all of it. And the idea is you want to be able to cleanse out the whole body, right, Doug? Because we know, like we said, the whole body is interconnected. Blood circulates thousands of times a day from head to toes. So what we do is we open up all the pathways in a very safe, high-caliber sense, which again helps with overall literally everything because everything is interconnected. Like one example, not to keep rambling because I know I'm going to be rambling a lot, but Many times, right, Doug, people will come to us with like head concerns, right? We would detox their feet and next thing you know their head concerns go away because now they have proper circulation, head to toes. Yeah, so it really is mind-boggling.

Wow.

Yeah. How many sessions does it usually take to— for people to see results?

Very, very good question. A very common question. It really matters based on what the concern is, who the— and who the person is. So for example, if someone had something for many years, it takes just longer because it's something older, right? And if some— if it's something newer, you see faster progress. But since someone— let's just say someone comes in for back pain, very common thing, right? We cater to the back pain, but you're also leaving, or the person or the client is leaving benefiting in so many other ways. Because when you're cleansing out the blood, once again you're cleansing out all the pathways, you're opening up all the circulation once again, right? We don't believe in an isolated approach. So even though someone might think they benefited one or two ways, you're actually benefiting in many other ways. I'll give you my personal story. I had anxiety at one point, brain fog, low energy, like crazy things. And I'd be drinking over like 700 milligrams of caffeine a day, Doug, right? But come to find out that I was heavily, heavily, uh, full of toxins. I had a lot of toxins in my body. In fact, someone else said this the other day, forgot their name, but nowadays it's not a matter if the person has toxins, it's all a matter of how much they have. The air is polluted, our water, our water is polluted, our food is genetically modified and full of pesticides and You know, so our clothes, everything that we wear, it just— everything is all about money, money, money. And everything is very synthetic nowadays. So this is where our human body, as miraculous as it is, gets backed up because there's just only so much that it can handle. And that's where modalities such as this can help the body greatly because you're just taking out the stagnant waste and allowing the body or aiding the body to recover itself.

So you open your doors uh, earlier this year, correct?

Yeah, January 7th was our grand opening.

And how's it going?

It's going really great. You know, we're about— funny, we're about 5 months in. You know, things are— from an entrepreneurship standpoint, as someone that's been in the game for a long time, it's still a new business. But you know, the impact that you see on people's lives is just really— it renders you speechless, right? You know, someone comes in, they feel unbalanced, Next thing you know, they experience the Soul Detox experience and they leave calm and collected, you know. And one day, definitely, God willing, I don't care if I have to even come to you, Doug, I have to experience it. Because I've had people come to me, and I've experienced this myself, where they're struggling, they're really stressed, right? They come in and they're just so cloudy in their mind. And when they leave, they're like, I swear to you, nothing matters right now. I'm just so relaxed. Yeah. And that's one of the many miracles is, you know, dopamine gets released during this process, you know, fresh oxygen in the blood. Again, this circulation. We also make the experience very nice. You know, you come in, there's a lot of artwork, we show like the history, we have like red light therapy and the aroma. And, you know, we make sure that it's a very calm setting for everybody.

Wow.

Interesting.

Yeah. So I can tell what gets you excited in the morning, but I'm going to ask you anyways. What gets you really excited to get up in the morning?

Is finally finding my purpose. So, you know, we know, you know, Doug, as yourself and someone who, once again, really impressed by your martial arts history, by the way.

Interesting. Yeah. Thank you.

Props to that. Again, I have a lot of respect for people that are very well put together, you know. And, you know, for me, it's finding actually something that is actually benefiting people, right? Because once again, for me, the making money is important because money is needed, right? It's just a means of life, right? But it's not the main driver, you know, even though money— once again, you need money, even charities need money. You know, it's all— I'm very big on charity too. That's one of my main pillars of my faith. But for me, it's being able to add value to people's lives while at the same time, I'll be real with you, it's a lucrative industry, you know, because it's never a wasted investment when you're investing in yourself, right? Never. So really, when I wake up in the morning, that's my drive. It's the fact that, hey, you know what? I can make such an impact on these people's lives, but at the same time, I could do it in a way where, hey, you can actually make money and, you know, use money to do other things. Uh-huh.

You sound like me.

There you go. But Doug, you know, I swear, like, there's no other— there's no other really approach. Like, you want to help people, how can you help people? You can voice it, but at the same time money, the capital is what you can use to help.

I'm with you. I mean, I get up every morning excited because I get to do interviews and also coach people and introduce my skills to people that are absolutely life-transforming. There's not a person I've ever— I've worked with 10,000 people, there's not one that hasn't been— their lives haven't been completely transformed by what I teach. And to your point, it's what gives you meaning and purpose in life and serving other people. Yes, I absolutely agree with that. And we make money out of it, which is great because money is freedom.

Money, money is exactly— money is freedom. And money, money is what helps you make moves. It's just the means.

Yeah, absolutely. So what is it that's unique that you bring to the table to make all this work?

So what's unique is technically the nature. All right. I feel like the All Creator has been prepping me. I've been involved in 8 startups. It's my 8th startup. Wow, 10 years. Yes, so 10 years, right? I've been, you know, going from one startup to another. Some startups were led by others, some startups were led together with me, and some startups I led alone, right? For me, all these years I've been learning and training, and it's been called failing forward, right? For me to come to this point right now, Doug, where I'm actually in a place where it's like, wow, this is where I have to invest everything in, right? So it's not just the person leading the vision, but at the same time, it's the person that, uh, it's actually the nature of what we're doing as well. So that's what the big differentiating factor— and if anybody were to align, and you, you know this as well, Doug, right? Would you want me to call you Mr. Noll?

No, no, Doug, please. You're, you're, you're on, though. You're good.

Okay, good, good. God bless. So the fact that, you know, kind of lost my train of thought, but the idea really is, you know, The purpose of what we're doing is so unique and so profound that anybody that gets involved has to experience it though. This is one thing too, right? Because I can sit there and talk until my face turns blue about how it feels, but without you actually experiencing it— this is actually where the, the slogan comes from actually for the Soul— for, for our brand Soul Talks. Cleanse your soul, feel reborn. You literally feel like a reborn person. Wow. When I got it done on myself, I had forgotten what it felt like to feel balanced, you know. And as human beings, Doug, that's normal. Like, we are a creation of, uh, creatures of adaptation. We adapt, and our bodies adapt to how we're feeling. And you actually forget what it feels like to feel normal, you know. So that's really what the uniqueness of this is. That's what, you know, what we have to bring is not only just that, but I have a very like spectacular team. I'm not the only one, you know. We have everything from like strategists to financial advisors to a whole creative team and practitioners and massage therapists and estheticians. Because what we do— so the idea is this, right? We have massage therapy, we have estheticians, we have a bunch of other services and we created our own niche. This is a new niche. We're considered like a spiritual medispace or spiritual medispa. Not only do we have like this wet cupping, toxin pulling, etc., but we have massage therapy, we have, you know, microneedling, we have different types of facials because we want someone to come in and feel like that you can walk away with basically almost anything. We have nutrition nutrition guidelines. So really, that's what the uniqueness is. We created our own new niche.

And tell us about your plans going forward. This is the, this is the flagship, the, the pilot.

Exactly. So technically, this is considered our, um, staging space.

Okay.

So our flag— during, once again, during Soul Detox, the 3-year anniversary is, uh, in this October. It'll be 3 years, right? Continuously adapting. The first plan was to open up a big flagship. As time passed, you know, the whole like mandates, etc., I had to then adapt. I'm like, okay, maybe opening up a physical location is dangerous at that point, you know, from, from a financial aspect. People didn't want to go out, everyone's afraid, right? Okay, so then I created the mobile concept, the mobile truck. We're pulling up, you know, We got a big Mercedes Sprinter, brand new, modified it, etc. Next thing you know, the CDC releases a statement saying, hey, the pandemic is done, it's over, COVID is done. Oh, they're great. Readapt again. Now people want to go out, people don't want to, you know, stay home anymore. So then this is where I met somewhere in the middle where it wasn't the substantially large flagship that's coming soon, God willing, but it's somewhere in the middle. So that's the plan. The plan is— and again, so there are certain plans I could share and certain plans that are, you know, we could talk about after privately, just you and I, you know. But the idea is to be all across the United States. How that looks can look different, but there's no denying we have our strategy and we can discuss it after. I would love to actually pick your brain about that.

So, so this means you—

it's—

you've designed this to be scalable.

That is what we're doing, correct.

And so you have to build— that means you have to build a leadership team, because obviously for every store that you open, you got to have a manager.

Yes.

And ultimately, when you have more than 5 stores, you're going to have to have somebody managing the managers.

Exactly.

You can just see the model exploring out. I'm sure you've thought about all of that, but that's gonna, that's gonna be an interesting process. Do you know where your, your next store is going to open?

We're looking— I mean, the goal was always Manhattan.

Okay.

But during— again, like, if God forbid something else were to happen, that's where we're kind of like torn. We're trying to see, but Manhattan would be the next one. But if again, God, you know, God forbid anything again were to happen of that nature, Manhattan was the first place that got hit the hardest, right?

It's a pretty dense population. Yeah, you're going to just expand in the New York City area, maybe over to New Jersey, Tri-State.

Exactly, the Tri-State area, right? New York, um, you know, Pennsylvania, etc., right? And then jump from state to state that are wellness-conscious states that are, you know—

California is going to be on your list, obviously.

California, Florida, Arizona, like so many of these states. But that's really what the goal is, and exactly what you said, actually. Funny enough, we align so much, Doug, is whenever anybody onboards the team, I tell them the same thing. I'm like, listen, we're in our advanced early stages of the startup. So I'm placing pillars in the company. So what you talked about. So when anybody comes, I'm like, listen, this is not just a job. This is a big opportunity, you know, because I'm all about growth. I'm all about empowerment that anybody comes on board and they're all about empowerment and giving their best and growth within. I empower them and I throw them even a lot more opportunities. So I would actually love to actually even learn more from your end, actually, in that aspect, uh, like management and leadership, thought leadership, which is critical.

Tell me about the importance of listening in your work.

Yes, listening is very important. The reason why listening is very important is a lot of the times people remind you of worry falling off, right?

They do have a tendency to do that, Mo.

Yeah, you know, and, and it's not easy, you know, again, assuming that it comes from a good place, assuming that, you know, they're not just— how do I say, um— making excuses for, for their failure, you know. And it does take a strong person, and I know you know this, Doug, to self-reflect and have self-accountability.

That's right.

That's very difficult. Many people do not do that. And you said this in one of your videos, is there's always, you know, you have a response. You have either personal or— sorry, is it going to be rational or is it going to be emotional, right? And a lot of people respond emotionally, don't even understand that.

They actually— that we're always emotional, but the question is, is it a reactive response, or is it a regulated response? Always within the context of emotion. And if we don't train ourselves, we're always going to have the reactive response, and that's when trouble arises.

Yes, and I'm sure we've been in many situations like that. There's Doug Noll, they're just like only, you know, very rational. So, so the point is that to listen is very important.

Right.

And I do take feedback, and I always tell anybody, I'm like, listen, I'm always big on communication. Anybody that comes and sits with me, whatever it is, I'm like, please, please, please, I'd rather you speak to me versus letting it harbor and fester into something that could have been avoided, right? You know, so I'm very big on that, very big on listening and communicating and seeing if it's a two-way street, you know, because sometimes people close off, right? Well, the ones that are receptive are very beautiful. Yeah.

And then the challenge is, how do you have— how do you take that typical conversation, transform it into something powerful?

Yeah, I, I asked them, you know, when— honestly, Doug, when anybody ever sits with me, the first question I ask them is, what are your goals? I'm like, if your goal is to do something big and grand, if, if you view working here, for example, as something short-term. Tell me that so that way we can work together and help you get to where you want to go, right? Even though I love having people, you know, I don't— I never want any talent to leave, but at the same time, if their heart's not in it, you can't force them. So always, you— I ask them, hey, you know, did you find your purpose? What are your goals? And that's how I kind of get—

I mean, and I would, I would add to that ask, ask, how, how can we help you grow? Even though this is not going to be your career, what experiences do you need to have working for us that will further your goals and grow you as an individual, personally and professionally?

Exactly, exactly.

And that sets— that mode, that sets really powerful expectations.

It, you know, Doug, that's what happened to me, my personal experience when I graduated fitness science school. It's a vocational school here in the city. You graduate as a master trainer. And the idea was, I remember I sat down with the manager at the time at New York Health and Racquet Club. That gym closed down due to interesting management during COVID but just to be nice about it. But the idea really is, I remember I sat down with him and he's like, listen, tell me what your goals are. I'm gonna help you. I wanna help you get there. Right. And I was honest with him and that's what he did. And that manager till this day is one of my business partners. Wow. And that was like 7 years ago.

See, there you go.

That's what I'm saying. And I learned from that moment that, hey, you know what? Honesty can actually really get you somewhere. Oh yeah. 'Cause it could have been a trick. He could have been like, hey, you know, tell me where your goals are. Oh, you don't wanna stay in this company long-term? Fired. You know, but he really chose to embrace me and water my— our plants, so to speak. So I definitely agree with you on that. Good.

One more question: what's one thing about you, Mo, that we would never have a clue about unless you told us?

Okay, so I have 6 siblings, 6 girls. I know I come off the only boy in the 7 You know, my mother tried for that brother, and her reasoning is actually very funny. Her reasoning as to why she wanted another boy is, um, if I grew up to be a loser, there's at least one more.

I love that.

Kind of balance it, right?

Well, I would say she's probably very proud of you right now.

God bless her. God, I would be nowhere without my mother, I'll tell you that. But I grew up on chick flicks. I grew up on the Spice Girls, Britney Spears. That's one thing people would never realize.

That's funny.

Yeah, that is really funny though. But that's— I grew up in a very feminine dominant household.

Well, that's great. And on that note, I'll thank you very much for taking your time out of your busy day to be with me today, Mo. It's— this has been great.

God bless you, Doug.

I appreciate you. Thank you.

Doug Noll here. Thank you so much for listening to Listening with Leaders. If you are a successful executive leader who would like to be on this program, please visit podcast.dougnull.com/podcast. If you got something out of this interview, would you please share this episode on social media? Just do a quick screenshot with phone and text it to a friend or post it on the socials. If you know someone that would be a great guest, tag them on the social media to let them know about the show and include the hashtag #ListeningWithLeaders. I love seeing your posts and guest suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content. To make sure you don't miss any episodes, go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show and mean a lot to me and my team.

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