How To Benefit From The Recession

Hello friends and welcome to Perfect Practice Pearls. I'm hosting a new series that we're going to be doing on a consistent basis where we're going to be sharing with you exactly how to navigate your practice, how to impact more lives and how to do it all while living a better quality of life yourself. We're going to be discussing all kinds of different topics that are fun, that are relevant, that are newsworthy, that you need to be aware of that is impacting your ability to impact with me. I have my co host Aaron. Aaron, how are you doing today?

I'm doing awesome Sachin. Excited to start this new series with you. Share some headlines and share what's top of mind and help a lot of people out there.

Yeah, me too. You know it's an interesting time to be a practitioner as we always seem to be saying, right. Because being a healthcare practitioner or a health coach, you know, people are so impacted in terms of their health with everything that's going on in the world. And you know, last time I checked today here in Canada gas prices were at $2.15. My mother in law yesterday came to my house and she was telling me how astronomically expensive food is. And you know, now we're hearing about this, you know, people are foreshadowing a recession. I think most people would say we're already in it. I was looking at some stock prices. I just got a peloton bike from a friend of mine and I'm always curious as to how these companies do and I saw peloton stock is down like 80% over the last eight months and all this money is just being kind of wiped off the face of the earth. I'm just curious as to where it's going. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. What are your thoughts on what's going on?

I honestly didn't realize we were in a recession and I did a little research and I survived the 2007-2008 recession so I have some experience. I mean that actually is what spurred me to change my career, get into naturopathic medicine, go to medical school. So I am thankful for the recession but I know it wasn't an easy time. My brother, I was just facetiming him with him yesterday, he's in San Francisco and I was just curious how much are gas prices? So we go by gallon here and it was like almost $7 per gallon and you know, normal. I don't know what normal is but normally we pay you know, $354. So this is like a 75% increase in gas prices. And so while the recession is going on, I'm curious, you know, how this will affect practitioners, because just yesterday you were saying how health, at least I'd love to know how this impacts. How you see this impacting the functional medicine space, the health and wellness space.

Yeah, great question. So I always look at every situation as opportunity, right? So the symbol for chaos and opportunity in the Chinese language are pretty much identical to one another. So when other people see chaos, what I see as opportunity and one of the things that we've been trying to do over the last few years is make our care more accessible and affordable to as broad a market and audience as we possibly can. And in the functional medicine world, that's not an easy thing because testing can get really expensive, supplementation can get really expensive. Things start adding up pretty quickly. And one of the things that we did a couple of years ago was, was really try to teach people how to become their own best doctor and really use their body as a mechanism for healing and use their environment and food and all the things that they're already doing, but doing them more intentionally and use that as a healing opportunity. So one of the things that we're working on right now is more of a do it yourself type of program where it's a little bit more hands off. So those people that truly can't afford to work with somebody have a course and a community and a product that, you know, basically is so simple and so strategic for them to follow, and they're supported by a community instead of being supported by a practitioner, which can significantly lower their costs. So that's, I think, one opportunity for all of us as functional medicine practitioners is how do we make what we have to offer people more accessible, more affordable? Trying to. During a recession, people don't get healthier unless they're actively doing something about it. They actually get sicker because they have more stress, right? They're probably not eating as healthy as it could be. You know, certain foods, especially, you know, organic foods and, you know, quote, unquote, healthier foods are already pricing people out of the market. Now they're going to be priced even further out of the market. And frankly, let's face it, some people have to choose between, you know, putting gas in their car and food on the table. But this also represents an awesome time to introduce fasting to people, right? Like what? There's never been a better time to avoid eating breakfast or eating a smaller dinner, right? Or maybe avoiding eating out and Filling your body up with foods that are detrimental to it. So I see an immense opportunity for us, all of us as practitioners, to be of service to people. And I also see an opportunity for practitioners and even entrepreneurs to kind of look at their business a little bit differently. We talked about this yesterday on one of our calls with our community, and that is that the best place for people to put their money right now is in one of two things, either their business or themselves. And if you're somebody who is an employee working somewhere, well, you don't have business to put money into. Putting money into the stock market is probably not a good idea right now. It's so volatile. Bitcoin, it seems to be really volatile these days, or at least pretty flat from what I'm seeing. And of course, the housing market, which is another place where people put their money that seems to be really uncertain and volatile, or at least trending downwards. So the best place for an entrepreneur to put their money is in their business and into themselves. The best place for an employee to put their money is investing in themselves and developing new skills. You know what? I kind of look at a recession like the fall. It's like the leaves are falling off the tree, and we can freak out or we can understand the cyclical nature of certain things have to die in order to keep the plant alive. And they will be back. So this is a time for us to acquire new skills, to perhaps look at our business through a slightly different lens. Perhaps even more strongly consider group programs, because they do make our care much more affordable. Perhaps consider combining a course with a community, which take does a lot of the heavy lifting for you and again, makes our services much more affordable. And here's the other thing. During a recession, the smart people are investing in their health, and these are generally people who have disposable income. So if we succumb to this idea that, you know, it's a recession, so I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna kind of crawl into my hole and come back out when, you know, the conditions are perfect. You're just gonna go crawl in that hole and die. There's people that have really ridiculous amounts of disposable income, and guess where they're investing their money right now? Into themselves. And so we could be there coaching them through the process of investing in themselves and into their health. So I see amazing opportunity right now for everyone who's in the healthcare space.

I'm imagining there are going to be a couple, like, two groups of people, those who are holding on to whatever they have, not wanting to let go and those who are going to see the opportunity. So you have any advice for shifting? I know it's hard around through the pandemic, everyone was like freaking out. It's very hard not to feel a little bit anxious. But I mean, how do you feel about, like when you hear a recession, what is that? Do you have to shift your, your emotions or manage them in a certain way to not get swept up in, in the hype? You know what I mean? Like, how do you manage emotionally?

Yeah, you know, I think for me I'm, you know, the financial kind of mindset that I have is to never really over leverage myself. And I've at some point lived with pretty much what feels like next to nothing now. And so I know what it's like to live a very simple lifestyle. I know what it's like to live a very extravagant lifestyle. And I found kind of a place in between and more leaning towards simplicity than extravagant. And so I'm not over leveraged in any of my investments. I don't have any loans or anything like that that I've taken. So I think a lot of it has to do with how we manage our finances just on a regular basis. And I can't speak to that because if somebody is overly leveraged and their mortgage is being called or their loans are being called, then that's a whole different situation that people are in. And maybe I'm not the best person to give advice on something like that, but when I hear the word recession, I again, I hear the word opportunity, I hear the word reinvent. Right? How do we reinvent our business or emphasize different aspects of what we have to offer or double down on certain things that maybe during a recession we focus more on these particular services that we offer or we focus on creating new offers and for people so we can appeal to the broadest audience. But here's the other thing is that the average person coming to see us in our practice is generally not in. They're generally in a position where they can afford the services. Right. And you know, in here in Canada and I know in the US many services are covered through insurance. So, you know, people still have access to health care, but if they're using their disposable income for, you know, to see a practitioner, then we just have to make sure we have something that meets everyone's needs. Like we have for the same program. We have multiple tiers. We have a do it yourself version, we have a let's do it Together version. And we have a let's help you live as long as possible version as well. So I think it's important that we, that we, you know, kind of sprinkle our practice with different offers at different price points. Just as a general practice, as a healthy practice for any business is having multiple tiers. And it used to be such that Apple was kind of like best or nothing. And they only had one phone. Right. And this was the phone. And as they broadened their, you know, their, and expanded their services into different markets and products into different markets, now they have a variety of different offerings, same operating system. Right. So, you know, whether you have the latest iPhone or even an iPhone that's five or six years old, the operating system is the same. So the experience is somewhat the same, but the hardware is different. So how do we take a page out of Apple's book and give people the same feeling but at different price points? How do we give them our DNA of our business and you know, you know, the feeling that they're working with us in a, in a meaningful capacity, regardless of what hardware or program they choose. So that would be a good exercise for practitioners to think about.

And what comes to mind is, you know, Apple and even Tesla, the stories how they started, you know, with their premium product. Tesla started with the Roadster before they created the Model 3. And if someone is like, start in a practice where they're in an insurance model or maybe they are doing fee for service. I mean, the advice I got from you is, you know, essentially create something where those who are willing and able to, to pay, who value what we offer. You know, there are people, they're out there, they're looking for it. So someone's afraid. Sometimes I hear speaking with other practitioners, if they're transitioning, say, oh, the people I want to help can't afford it. But it's not necessarily that everyone can't afford it. There is a portion of people who are willing and able and see it's really important to invest in their health. And that's who I like to work with. I'm sure that's who you like to work with as well.

Yeah, and I think that's important because sometimes what we forget to modify and upgrade is two things. And I talked about this last night on a patient webinar that we did, which is our paradigm and our identity. So our identity is really representative of who we're going to attract. And sometimes we project our identity onto other people as a way of deflecting from ourselves. And instead of upgrading our identity. We just kind of keep seeing it in the people that we attract into our practices, but also into our personal lives as well. If we start the day with the mentality that people aren't going to pay for this, then guess what, you're going to attract people who aren't going to pay for this. But if you start with the mentality that I don't need everyone to pay for this, I need the right people who are fully committed to this process, to getting healthier. Those are the people that I want to work with anyways, right? So that's what I focus on. Because that's where you can actually create the transformation. You can't create transformation for people who can't afford the recommendations you're going to give them. Even if your services were free, if they can't afford to eat healthy, if they can't afford to get an air purifier for their house, if they can't afford to drink clean water, right. Then it doesn't matter what you charge them, they can't afford to take action. So we want to really attract and really set an intention, be very intentional about our own identity and the identity of the people that we want to attract and realize that they're are millions upon millions of people who want our help. And an interesting statistic is there are over 1 million millionaires in America. So think about that. About 1% of people are millionaires. So there are over 3 million millionaires in America alone, in the United States alone. What if you just focused on them? How many of them do you think have a functional medicine practitioner?

Right.

Probably less than 1% of those people. So 99% of millionaires are right now in need of and perhaps searching and can afford the services that any one of us has to offer. Now here's the other thing we have to realize, and I've always told people this, is that if you want to, if you ever think you charge too much, go get a quote to landscape your front yard. Go call a landscaper and ask them to give you a quote for just even a mediocre front yard landscape job. And then look at the bill and then you tell me you charge too much. Okay? And you will quickly realize how little you charge. Go clog your toilet and flush it and then call a plumber and see how much he charges you to fix that clogged toilet. Okay? Go call an electrician and tell them you want to rewire your house or an IT person and tell them you want to rewire your house. And hardwire it for Internet and then tell me you charge too much. Okay, so we actually have been, you know, kind of misguided in thinking what too much is because we have this broken idea of what too much is. Is $3,000 to help somebody live longer too much to get rid of all their pain, all their aches, all the things that they've done to cause their suffering and show them how to reverse it permanently and give them a lifelong strategy. Is $3,000 is way too little. I think even $30,000 is too little. And I know there was an interesting stat that came out here in Canada that people would pay 50% of their life savings to live just a few days longer. 50% of all the money they've accumulated in their last days. They would pay all of that to live just a little bit longer. So if we know that they're willing to pay it, then when they really can't do anything about it, you know, what do you think they're willing to pay now when they can do something about it and enjoy each day? Those are the people that I want to attract, right? Because those are the people that are going to take action. Those are the people that are motivated, those people that can follow, follow the recommendations. And remember there, it's. It's really about psychology. It's not really about finances. We can make it about finances, but we want to attract somebody who has the right psychology for their healing journey to take place. Because there's some people that have lots of money, but they don't listen to anything you tell them. Right. They're too busy to be healthy. Right. Or they're just too caught up in the things that they think are important. We want people who prioritize their health, so really be really clear on the identity of the person that you want to attract and realize that there are millions of millionaires out there. So there are plenty of people that have the financial means. Whether there's a recession or not, really, a recession is a transfer of wealth. That money goes somewhere. It doesn't just evaporate into nothingness. It goes somewhere. People are pulling money out of certain stocks and then putting them somewhere else. Right now, people are pulling money out of stock market, and they're sitting on piles of cash. Not all of them. Okay, I don't want to be insensitive to people's situations, but the people that are going to likely afford and work with you are sitting on piles of cash they don't know what to do with. Let's remind them that the Best place to invest it is in themselves. And let's be there to guide that journey.

It's a correction. So when I hear this conversation about recession, it's certain, or maybe in general there is a recession, but there's going to be pockets that are actually growing. There's certain sectors that will not see a recession. If anything, just like over the pandemic, there are certain sectors that grew. You know, the, the online e commerce space, Amazon grew, Tesla probably grew. So there was some. It's like really just a correction. Some of the businesses that aren't built to survive will, you know, fold or go away. Those who are overpaid for their services or who don't really have the skills might not have their jobs because they weren't actually doing something important. That's how I'm starting to think about it.

Yeah.

Sessions of correction.

Yeah, it's a great perspective and, you know, just realize that no matter where you are, no matter how dark it is at night, it's sunny somewhere else. And no matter how cold it is in winter, it's summer somewhere else. So it's really about where our head is at, where our perspective is at, where our identity is at. And do we see chaos or do we see opportunity? And that's our paradigm, right? That's the lens through which we look at the world. And so I invite all practitioners to look at the world through the lens of opportunity instead of the lens of chaos.

But I think maybe we can pivot. There's that one area of opportunity that I know you have been working with is even in the weight loss metabolic health world. And I just saw a headline from the Mayo Clinic. They did a survey, they pulled like 200,000 people they've been working with on weight loss. And they were asking what's their motivation for losing weight? And 83% of those people said that they want to focus on their health, not just how they look. So if anyone's wondering, is anyone going to pay for improving their health? There are actually a lot of people now after the last couple years who are focusing on their health. Not just, hey, I want a six pack, or I want to, you know, build more muscle, primarily not as their primary motivation. So have you been seeing that now, like, compared to previous years in practice doing functional medicine, and maybe in the last couple years you see more people being proactive versus, you know, more pathology focused, problem focused when they seek you out?

Yeah, I mean, I think people, sometimes people just say, I just want to be healthy, I just want to feel good. Right. And I mean, who doesn't, who doesn't want to feel vibrant? Who doesn't want to feel healthy and feel good from the moment they wake up to the moment they feel go to bed at night and have a good night's rest and wake up energized and do it all over again? I think that there's just this amazing opportunity, again, back to the word opportunity for us to be of service. Because as functional medicine practitioners, we can actually help people get healthier. As health coaches, that's our title, right? Is to help people get healthy. There's nothing in our current medical system that makes people healthy. You can't go to your family practitioner and have, let's say, normal labs or even a normal body composition and nothing, quote unquote, wrong with you and go to them and say, hey, I need. Can, can you help me get healthier? What are they going to offer you? There's no body part that they can cut off and there's no drug that they can give you. Right. And some of them may have specialty training and lifestyle and nutrition and things like that, but that's usually very far and few in between. And in five minutes there's only so much that they can do except lip service to helping you. Whereas this trend, what it shows me is that there's going to be a growing need and demand for people who can actually help others get healthy. And who better than a health coach or a functional medicine practitioner? And just to give people a good metaphor, think of your doctor like a mechanic shop. A mechanic shop is somebody. When your car is in a wreck, you get into an accident, you bump it or scrape it, scratch it, and guess what, you take it to an auto body repair shop. Or if the engine breaks down, you know, due to lack of care or it needs maintenance, you go to a mechanic. Whereas a tuner is the category that we probably fall more into. And a tuner is somewhere you can take a brand new car, you can buy a brand new 911, pull it off the lot, drive it right to the tuners garage and add another 200 horsepower to it, right, With a few simple tweaks. So, you know, one of the things that we need to kind of position in our own minds is are we a mechanic that's fixing people who are broken? Yes, we can do that. Or do we want to position ourselves as a tuner who's somebody who can take somebody's health to a next level, unlock a potential that that person didn't even know they had? So we can do both. Whereas our traditional medical system is designed to be diagnosis centric. And even then, the solutions that they provide is not going to make somebody healthier. It might make them normal or appear normal on the lab tests. Right. We can artificially lower someone's cholesterol, we can artificially lower someone's blood pressure, but we're not removing the real cause of those things. So it's fake health. Right. It's health that's dependent on an intervention. So you're dependently healthy. Well, now's the time that we can help people get independently healthy by coaching them through a process. So I would say that I'm so happy to hear this news and to see this study being done because this is the direction that we've kind of been focusing on. Right. And you know, many marketers will even tell you, you can't sell people health. They don't want health, they want to solve their pain. Right. And so we hear that all the time, over and over again. We hear people saying, you gotta find, you know, a pain point. You got to twist the knife, add salt to the wound. And yeah, there's certain people that we can help that way. But if the majority of people, 83% of people, according to this study, want to be healthy, then we could be missing a huge segment of the population that wants to be healthy but doesn't know where to go. So that's where our messaging needs to be really clear for people.

Yeah, it's like maybe that I feel like it's such a, a destructive myth to say, like, I heard those things from marketers and was told that, oh, no one's going to want to be proactive about their health. So then you focus your, your messaging on the problems and then you get people who are looking to solve their problems. And it's always this feels like this uphill battle even to just have them shift their perspective and say, I want to feel good and value health. So it seems like now, though, the tipping point has occurred in the general public awareness that, oh, I need to feel better. There's a lot more awareness on mental health. And we know that mental health is really a manifestation also of like physical health and emotional, spiritual and doing things to take care of yourself rather than handing you a Prozac or something to try to take the edge off. And so much opportunity to guide people and show them the skills instead of like, give them a quick fix. And people, I think, are realizing there, there really isn't a quick fix. That's like a lie that's being uncovered now.

Well, you know, here's the thing. There are quick fixes, but there are not instant fixes. So, you know, our body is always working towards and moving towards homeostasis. And I know you do the metabolic program. We do a metabolic program, and we see some amazing transformations that happen very, very quickly, not instantly. It's not gonna happen overnight, like a medication or seemingly like a medication can instantly lower blood pressure instantly, relatively speaking, get rid of pain. But it can happen pretty quickly, Much, much faster than most people think. So, you know, one thing I wanted to kind of highlight is a good metaphor. So when somebody is going to swimming lessons, right, they're not going to. Not drowning lessons, right? So. So this is, you know, and the reason I bring this up is because when we think about health, people are going to their doctor to learn how not to drown. When they go to a health coach or a, you know, wellness centric or vitalistic centric functional medicine practitioner, they're learning how to swim, right? So there's a totally different mentality when somebody gets married, right? They're trying to create something. They're trying to create a beautiful marriage, beautiful relationship, beautiful family, and perhaps have kids, grandkids, you know, build a nice house together and really create a meaningful relationship. They're not entering their marriage and operating out of this idea that, hey, I'm just trying to prevent myself from getting divorced or I'm trying to prevent a separation. That's not the operating model. And the same thing applies to a business. When you start a business, you launch new products and new systems and new offerings, not to prevent bankruptcy, but to create transformation for your clients and to create a thriving business. So why is it that when it comes to our health, we're operating out of this paradigm that's now we can see clearly is not what people want, which is prevention, right? Prevention. You know, anytime we say we're preventing something, anytime we give energy to prevention, we actually are giving energy to creation. So whatever we're trying to prevent, we're giving more energy to actually creating it, right? There's over 10,000 different diagnosis codes that you could give somebody. How many of those are you going to try to prevent on a daily basis? Instead, what's so much easier is having a vitalistic model, which is, hey, I just want to be healthy. I want to be as healthy as I can possibly be. And that's so much easier than learning how to prevent one specific disease and then, you know, the other tens of hundreds or ten or thousands. I'm Sorry. Of other diseases that are out there that we would have to then consciously try to prevent. Just focus on health. And that's clearly what the study is saying that people want.

Now, how are you just pivot a little bit? How are you getting this message across? Like how. What are you seeing in trends? You're very active on social media and sharing things where you've been playing with. How are you getting more of this message to the right people?

Yeah, you know, one thing I've been experimenting with, kind of reluctantly, admittedly, is short form video. And the reason I've been reluctant is because people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and shorter. In fact, less than a goldfish, as some people will tell you. And so I'm like, do I want to contribute more to shortening people's attention spans? And do I really want to be in short form content? And then I realized I watch short form content, so I don't have the patience for long form content sometimes. So I decided to start playing and experimenting with reels with the inspiration of Dr. David Bennett from our mentorship and Natalie Morse. And I know a bunch of other people have experimented with the Chelsea Ward. And I said, let me just try this and see what happens. And it actually started with my son. He said, hey, dad, I'm going to record a few YouTube shorts of some of his artwork. And he started doing that. And the first short that he did, he got 3,500 views. And I was like, oh my God, like, I can't let my 11 year old kind of out reel me here. And so I did one and I had Deepa just record a video of me doing some simple nitric oxide boosting exercises out on the grass. And we posted it and you know, really quickly, much quicker than I thought, it hit 3,000 and then it was like neck and neck with my son. And then it surpassed my son. And then now it's at like 525,000 views and thousands of shares and, you know, hundreds of comments. And I've, you know, really found it to be quite interesting because my following on my personal page was 5,000 friends and 12,000 followers. And it was kind of stagnant there. And now it's 5,000 friends, you know, hundreds of invites. But the following has grown to like 28,000 people now. So what took me 12 years to do, I was able to do in 12 days and double. And now I'm going to, you know, keep pushing forward in that regard. So, yeah, short form content, like a minute or less. Is really being prioritized by, you know, many of the social media algorithms. And I don't know if this is good for us, you know, for our psychology, for our brains, but it's definitely good to get eyeballs on your content. And I've been packing in, you know, really useful, powerful health tips in there. So I feel like I'm contributing in a positive way to, to helping people, moving them towards action. Instead of like some of the crazy things that you see in short form, content that just kind of a distraction, it entertains you, but it's really a distraction from moving you towards, you know, transformation.

And so hopefully that that positive message takes up a little bit more of someone's brain space instead of the 20th cat video that they've watched that day or even more something negative, you know.

Right, Exactly.

Awesome. Well, this was a lot of fun. Any, any parting words before we close out for the. For the day?

Oh, this is. This was great. I'm really looking forward to our conversations. I enjoyed our time together today. And for those of you that tuned in, thanks for joining us. Feel free to comment, feel free to share, feel free to be part of the dialogue and conversation. Our goal and objective is to be of value to you and you know, really not look at the world through gold glasses, right. Or rose colored glasses, but to really paint a picture of what is possible for practitioners and for patients and to really help people feel their absolute best. So I know, Aaron, you want a world where people are healthy, vibrant and vital. And that's exactly what I want. And people who are listening, I'm sure that that's what they want as well. And we want to accelerate the creation of that world because we know it exists. It just exists at some point in the future. And if we can accelerate faster towards that future, then I think we all win to together. Awesome.

Thanks, Aun.

Thanks, Aaron. Have a great rest of your day and thank you all for tuning in. Have a great rest of your day.