Like many people who reach their mid-40s, Robin Switzer was sick and tired of being sick and tired. She switched to a ketogenic diet, lost a lot of weight and felt more mental clarity. But that was just the beginning of her transformation; it sparked a complete revolution in her career and life.
At the time, Robin was a banking execute making very good money. But she wanted to do something more meaningful with the second half of her life, something that mattered more than helping bankers make more money. That decision led her into an extraordinary second act.
She initially got involved in the keto community through Ketocon. After a few years, she bought out the owners of the conference and rebranded the event to Hack Your Health.
As popular as the title "Keto" has become, she wanted the event's name to more accurately reflect its focus on health optimization and not just on the keto diet.
Robin shares with us the challenges she's faced to maintain the event's integrity. Turns out, plenty of companies are willing to throw money at the "keto market" even though their products are not remotely healthy. (Whoda thunk it?)
She makes it a matter of personal responsibility to ensure that every company and presenter at the conference aligns with her mission to provide an authentic, health-focused forum for all who attend.
This episode let's you know what to expect if you're joining us in person or tuning in from afar. Robin's invitation to take action for your health today is not just a call to action; it's a beacon of hope for those ready to transform their lives. Don't miss this power-packed episode that might just be the nudge you need to embark on your own health journey.
Learn more about the Hack Your Health conference.
========================================
Chances are, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't need to change your life and get healthier.
So take action right now. Book a call with Dr. Ovadia's team.
One small step in the right direction is all it takes to get started.
How to connect with Stay Off My Operating Table:
Twitter:
Learn more:
Theme Song : Rage Against
Written & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey
(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings
Like many people who reach their mid-40s, Robin Switzer was sick and tired of being sick and tired. She switched to a ketogenic diet, lost a lot of weight and felt more mental clarity. But that was just the beginning of her transformation; it sparked a complete revolution in her career and life.
At the time, Robin was a banking execute making very good money. But she wanted to do something more meaningful with the second half of her life, something that mattered more than helping bankers make more money. That decision led her into an extraordinary second act.
She initially got involved in the keto community through Ketocon. After a few years, she bought out the owners of the conference and rebranded the event to Hack Your Health.
As popular as the title "Keto" has become, she wanted the event's name to more accurately reflect its focus on health optimization and not just on the keto diet.
Robin shares with us the challenges she's faced to maintain the event's integrity. Turns out, plenty of companies are willing to throw money at the "keto market" even though their products are not remotely healthy. (Whoda thunk it?)
She makes it a matter of personal responsibility to ensure that every company and presenter at the conference aligns with her mission to provide an authentic, health-focused forum for all who attend.
This episode let's you know what to expect if you're joining us in person or tuning in from afar. Robin's invitation to take action for your health today is not just a call to action; it's a beacon of hope for those ready to transform their lives. Don't miss this power-packed episode that might just be the nudge you need to embark on your own health journey.
Learn more about the Hack Your Health conference.
========================================
Chances are, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't need to change your life and get healthier.
So take action right now. Book a call with Dr. Ovadia's team.
One small step in the right direction is all it takes to get started.
How to connect with Stay Off My Operating Table:
Twitter:
Learn more:
Theme Song : Rage Against
Written & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey
(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings
He was a morbidly obese surgeon destined for an operating table and an early death. Now he's a rebel MD who is fabulously fit and fighting to make America healthy again. This is Stay Off my Operating Table with Dr Philip Ovedia.
Jack Heald:Welcome everybody. This is the Stay Off my Operating Table podcast with Dr Philip Ovedia, and we're really looking forward to, I'm looking forward to. I think Phil has a much better relationship, a longer relationship, with our guests than I do, but I'm interested in finding out about Robin Switzer and this monstrous keto conference that, like that's coming up in Austin soon.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:So Phil, introduce our guest. Yeah, I actually only recently got introduced to Robin, but once I met her I knew she was going to be someone awesome to work with and someone who we had to help get the word out. And, as you mentioned, she is the organizer of the Hack your Health Conference which is coming up in Austin May 31st to June 2nd and I'm going to be speaking and the entire Ovadia Heart Health iFixHearts team is going to be there with the booth just helping to promote the message of metabolic health. So we're really excited about that. But Robin's got a great story as to how she got into this and kind of the background of the conference. Robin, why don't you kind of start by introducing yourself to our audience?
Robin Switzer:Sure, my name is Robin Switzer and I own a company called Q1 Productions which is the parent company for an event called Hack your Health, which we recently rebranded from Ketocon Health, which we recently rebranded from Ketocon.
Robin Switzer:My backstory is that I struggled with my metabolic health for most of my life until I was in my mid-40s and of course, at the time I didn't understand what that was. I just thought that I had a food problem, that I couldn't stop eating sugar or any type of carbohydrate carbohydrate, really and I was emotionally tied to those foods and because of that I had a weight problem that I would go in and out of every diet known to man. I tried everything, including the dangerous ones shots, pills, diets, special foods, books I mean I did it all. And it wasn't until I discovered the Atkins diet that I started to get a taste of what it would be like no pun intended taste of what it would be like to live without carbohydrates. And at the time I didn't really have the wherewithal to withstand the social pressures of eating low carb, because it just wasn't mainstream in those days. You know, I'm 62. So in my forties it was 20 years ago.
Jack Heald:Yeah, okay, early, 2000s.
Robin Switzer:Yeah, I went through childbearing, I went through premenopause, I went through all the life stages that you go through as a woman with this kind of hanging over my head and I really didn't understand what was going on. I always thought it was just because I couldn't stick to a diet. I did have a problem with food addiction, definitely. But so once I discovered the Atkins diet, that was like my introduction and I would go in and out of the Atkins diet. I'd try all the other ones, white knuckle it through them and then gain the weight back and go back to Atkins. But once I finally discovered eating low carb initially I was also low fat I lost quite a bit of weight, like 60 pounds, wow and yeah.
Robin Switzer:But it was really hard for me to maintain that following a low fat diet also. So when I added the fat back in, then that's when all the bells and whistles started to go off. When I added the fat back in, then that's when all the bells and whistles started to go off. The keto side of eating low carb higher fat, lower carb is what really made the difference for me. So it brought back my mental health and my got rid of the like, depression and all the side effects of poor metabolic health and were there?
Jack Heald:were there other mental health issues that you're aware of?
Robin Switzer:I really struggled with depression? I would say I had. I don't want to say that I was manic, but I had super high highs and super low lows and I used to. I remember telling, like saying to other people I feel like I'm getting the crazies again, and that's when I'm either out of control up or out of control down. I was never diagnosed with anything, but I could feel it.
Jack Heald:Yeah, sure.
Robin Switzer:When I discovered keto, this was in probably 2010, maybe and so I started following this diet, and that's when everything turned around, Like all these things that I was battling with outside of the weight. Everything started to turn around. So, following the ketogenic diet, I was healing all the things that were going on inside that I didn't understand, and so I became pretty passionate about it. I was working for a large global bank at the time very high pressure job managing salespeople across the country, and it occurred to me that it was time for me to really consider making a change. But I didn't know how to take my skill set and translate it into something else. But I was in all of these keto Facebook groups all of these keto Facebook groups and I saw a post for a project manager in one of these groups for a keto business, and I was very curious about it, so I answered. I responded to the post and I met a gentleman named Brian his name is Brian Williamson who was starting a brand called Keto Evangelist and he had four or five podcasts that were posting weekly you know interviews. He had all these different Facebook groups and he had this vision of building this, what he called the Keto Empire and I was so excited by the thought of being involved in something like this because first of all, it would keep me accountable, but also it would just I mean, it would help me find a way to translate my skillset to doing something else, which I didn't even understand what I was going to be doing. But it also gave me kind of an insight to this. Is might be a way that I can find work that is more meaningful to me, where I could feel like I was making a difference. So 30 days later I jumped ship at the bank and started working with Brian, and there was really no promise for compensation. It was all kind of like a pie in the sky idea of what we were going to do. But I did it, and not something I would tell other people to do. But my kids were like grown and out of college by then, so I had already taken care of paid off those loans and taking care of my responsibilities.
Robin Switzer:We started planning building this keto empire and first thing we thought about doing was a live event. I had never produced a live event before but, working in treasury management, I had been a speaker and a sponsor at these large treasury management conferences, so I could kind of back into that experience. I knew what the speakers expected. I knew what the sponsors and exhibitors expected. I didn't understand all the backend workings, but I'm pretty good at figuring things out. So we decided to do our first event. We did that in 2017, ketocon the science and stories of keto and we did it again in 2018 and 2019. And it just exploded. It was, of course, by now I'm making money, but the event had exploded. We were expecting 3,000 people, 120 vendors in 2020, starting from 500, some odd attendees and 39 vendors in 2017. So it just blew up.
Robin Switzer:Meanwhile, we're building other brands. We built a. We developed a MC2 oil product a powdered MC2 oil product as a salute, as an alternative to dairy for coffee. We started a certification platform for keto food product manufacturers. Brian continued with the podcasts. We started some marketplaces. We were doing all kinds of things building this brand. And then COVID happened.
Jack Heald:I was thinking in my head, I'm thinking and then 2020.
Robin Switzer:Yeah, and then 2020 happened and I mean, the bottom fell out of everything. All of the brands that were generating revenue stopped overnight, and it was March and we had an event planned for June. So I don't think I shared this with Phil, but the venues when you contract with a large convention center, there's obviously a contract involved, but there's language in there that states if, by some act of God or some unexpected circumstances, they have to cancel you, then they'll honor your investment, but if you cancel, then you forfeit your investment. It was March and the city of Austin was not calling it and I had to make a decision on what we were going to do for this event. So we had to cancel and by then, brian came to me and he said, yeah. Brian came to me and he said we've probably got 90 days and we're going to have to shut the doors.
Robin Switzer:The event is paid for. We can't do it. We can't get any of our money back. All the people who had invested in the event the sponsors, ticket holders. They had agreed to a no refund policy, but nobody likes when you enforce a no refund policy, so everybody's pissed off at us. And he has kids to put through college and we're in lockdown. I wasn't. I'm pretty stubborn. I've really earned this hair.
Jack Heald:I know what does this say about Phil and I.
Robin Switzer:You've both earned that as well, I mean okay.
Robin Switzer:Earn this. This is a badge of honor. You know, I said I'm just I don't feel like the work is done. Of course I. I had no idea there was going to be two years lockdown. No idea, I said there's just so much work to be done. I don't want to go back to banking. I'm willing to take a chance. If you'll let me take this over. I'll acquire it from you and I'll rebuild when we can, and that's what I did. My 401k took care of rebuilding all of this.
Robin Switzer:We couldn't do the event in 2020. We couldn't do it in 2021. 2020, we did pivot to a virtual event, which is kind of an embarrassment in my career. I learned Zoom and interviewed 70 speakers in a matter of three weeks weeks, but we put it out there for the ticket holders. So 2021, 2022, 2021, we couldn't do it either. We came back in 2022, 2021, 22. Yeah, and when we came back, did we come back in 2022 or 2023? When we came back, it was really exciting because everybody that was there really wanted to be there. Yeah, and it was very clear to me that I needed to keep doing this. And there's a whole backstory to what happened during the two years that we were down and what we were building, but I won't share that today. We don't have enough time.
Jack Heald:Probably going to want to hear it though. Yeah, we'll sit, have enough time, probably going to want to hear it, though.
Robin Switzer:Yeah, we'll sit down and have coffee sometime and I'll tell you all about it. I felt that it was going to be the writing was already on the wall that the word keto was scaring people away. I mean, everybody that came to the event was really happy to be there, but I could see that there were so many more people to help and because I was branded as keto, they thought this is a diet I don't follow, so that event's not for me. Same with the vendors, and I got that feedback from them and it was really hard to say this event is not just about the ketogenic diet. But that didn't translate in the naming of the event. So we decided that we would rebrand so that we could throw a much wider net, so that I could reach more people, because metabolic health is a big, complex message in a world where there's so much information and so much misinformation.
Robin Switzer:We decided in year one that we would just change our tagline. That way, we could maintain our keto base but continue to grow. So we rebranded to KetoConHackYourHealth and during that year we started peppering in the Hack your Health hashtag everywhere that we could, with the full intention of rebranding to Hack your Health by KetoCon this year, and so what that's allowed us to do is maintain some of the keto branding. It helped me maintain the SEO on the internet for searching for Ketocon. It also did something that I didn't expect it brought in the companies that see themselves falling within the biohacking space because of the word hack hack your health and that just posed a whole new challenge for me, because there's a huge misconception that biohacking is for people who are incredibly wealthy and can buy like a $15,000 cold plunge and have wet red light panels all over the room, and that's not the case. So it's been an interesting transition because the basis of the event is still metabolic health and if you look at who the speakers are at the event, you'll see that they're talking about different areas of metabolic health, but we're just incorporating additional pillars of health into the conversation and bringing in companies that are offering tools and software and wearables and supplements and things that fall within the biohacking space but are really about health optimization. So the funny part about the rebrand that I'll share with you a lot of people seem to resonate with this.
Robin Switzer:I didn't have $30,000 to hire a marketing company to help me with this. I was going solely on gut instinct. My son and I my son runs the expo hall and the exhibitor sales throughout the year my son and I and my daughter-in-law and granddaughter were in the car driving to North Carolina and we were trying to figure out a new name for this event. And we're just throwing you know, throwing stuff around trying to figure out how can we rebrand, what should we call it, what would incorporate more than just keto, what would incorporate health optimization? And Ryan came up with Hack your Health. He just like that and we knew it right away. That was the name, but I was driving down the highway I think it was either 75 or 10 on my phone buying the URL on GoDaddy to make sure that we didn't lose it.
Robin Switzer:I mean, this is really a family thing, this is a family business, and that proves it right there. So that's how we came up with Hack your Health and that's really where we are today. I mean, this year we're expecting somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 people at the event we have not gotten back to pre-pandemic size yet, but I think we will and we're incorporating more and more things into the event. So there's you know there's going to be movement classes and fitness classes and cooking demos and book signings, and you know you'll be able to jump in a cold tub like an ice bath if you want, or a sauna, all these types of things that, while we're still talking about, the underlying theme is how to improve your metabolic health, and that's how I got to what I'm doing today.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, I mean it just I love the story, I love the evolution and it really does, you know, kind of jive with what we are trying to do around metabolic health and and what you know. At least I think the message should be you know, this isn't about one particular dietary strategy and you know, at least I think the message should be you know, this isn't about one particular dietary strategy and you know, I'd always kind of you know the keto camp and the carnivore camp and you know the more broad low carb and you know, and it's really, like you said, about taking control of your health and being an active participant, an active manager of your health and being an active participant and active manager of your health and that does incorporate more than just the diet, although, you know, oftentimes the diet is kind of the center of that. So I think it's a great message and great kind of you know theme to be bringing to the conference. You know, I think one thing I guess you know, I think we should bring this up, you know, and I'll certainly let you know you know, one of the things that I had heard about Ketocon and I hadn't actually been to Ketocon.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:I'd thought about going to it many years. It just didn't work on the schedule. But you know, one of the criticisms I had heard of it is that it had become sort of overly. It was sort of taken over by these food companies that were trying to promote foods that were labeled as keto but probably weren't benefiting people's health.
Robin Switzer:Let me share with you. I do have a banned ingredient list.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, exactly that's what I wanted to get to.
Robin Switzer:Yeah those food products. I'm going to guess that feedback, that criticism, came from food products that had things like stevia and monk fruit and those types of ingredients in them. We don't allow seed oils we never have, and we don't allow sugar. Um, however, there have been times where a company that makes like an energy bar or something might have a gram of sugar in it from honey, that kind of thing.
Robin Switzer:That's probably where the criticism came from, but I have to tell you that was part of my reason to want to change things, because I heard people saying this is like the Disneyland of keto and I didn't want to be. I didn't want to draw 1000s of people into an event that only came to get a bag full of free snacks was so much more than that to me. So, yeah, we've definitely moved away from that. I don't think we have five food products at the show this year, and one of one of them is a local rancher and another one of them is Pedersen's Farms. That's always there cooking up bacon and sausage. So, yeah, there's very few food products at the event anymore.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:And.
Robin Switzer:I have to say that, like last year, I got a lot of feedback from people that were disappointed in that.
Jack Heald:In the lack of food products.
Robin Switzer:Yeah, they wanted to bring a bag and bring home a bunch of free snacks, and that's just not how it is anymore. But I have to say that, even though I've moved away from that model, I still have the same band ingredient list.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, the band ingredient list is something fairly unique, I think, to the conference world and I love it. You know, and it's on point, you know, I always, unfortunately, I've had the experience over and over again of going to medical conferences you know, heart focused medical conferences and they're serving junk food.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:It just amazes me and you know. So I think making this a sort of holistic approach to health and making sure that everything related to the conferences is, you know, supporting that message is really admirable, because you know a lot of these organizations. They just go where the money is and if someone donates enough money or pays enough money to exhibit, you know they kind of turn their back on whatever they happen to be promoting and they'll allow it. And you've stuck to your guns and you know have a pretty impressive banned ingredient list on right on the website and I've seen the exhibitor list for this year and, yeah, everything the food products that are there I certainly would give my stamp of endorsement to.
Robin Switzer:You know it's super hard and very expensive to put on these events. It's really difficult. I'm lucky that I happen to enjoy it and I get the cycle. I understand the cycle but there have been several times where I have turned away very big companies that could have made my event very profitable and I just couldn't do it. General Mills approached us with some wacko keto cereal that they were making and we had to turn them away. It was just junk. Like all these keto cereals are junk. They're so full of fiber that your stomach blows up. I mean they're not good products. Yeah, I understand the dilemma, but you'll never see a keto Pop-Tart at my event or anything similar to that ever.
Jack Heald:If we get to the point where we have to accept that kind of money, then we'll have to stop doing the event. This is fascinating to realize that there's people who actually stick to their guns in this world. I mean, you know, I was, I'm. My particular addiction of choice is Twitter, and just here in the last month it's come out that the American Diabetes Association it's probably not recently, but the American, it's been very widespread in my particular feed the companies that donate to the American Diabetes Association who are I mean, it's kind of a who's who of who's responsible for diabetes on a corporate basis in this country, and it's just been.
Jack Heald:I'm past the point of being shocked, but I'm not past the point of still being appalled that somebody, that an organization that is allegedly there to help, is in fact not only not helping but actively creating the disease that they're apparently their reason for existing is to help folks.
Jack Heald:It just drives me nuts. I applaud you, thank you for sticking to your guns. You know, in the branding world, one of the things we preach to our customers constantly is things that work quickly tend to work less well over time, and things that work slowly tend to work better the longer you do it, and I cannot help but believe that somebody who's going to stick to their guns and say absolutely positively no at any price, that the first year is going to stick to their guns and say absolutely positively no at any price, that the first year is going to be hard and the second year is slightly less hard and the third year slightly, but if you stick to your guns it's going to pay off over time yeah, if nothing else I'll, I can sleep good at night really at this point in my life I mean I'm not going to be doing anything that doesn't is not meaningful for me.
Robin Switzer:I'm not going to be doing anything that doesn't is not meaningful for me. I'm not going to be doing anything where I've. My whole purpose in this is to make a difference. And if I can't be making a difference, if I have to sell out to be able to afford to do it, then I'm not making a difference and I'll have to stop and I'll do something else.
Jack Heald:How does you know? I've looked at as a non-medical professional. I've looked at several of these conferences and yours is three days, I believe, and I thought to myself, okay, why would I? What do I want to get out of attending a conference like this? So talk to the people like me. What's going to happen in this conference that just your average Joe who's trying to get healthier would be glad they were there.
Robin Switzer:There's a long list. So, I mean, the first thing I would say is you're going to learn about metabolic health and you're going to learn about how to improve your health, regardless of where you are in your health journey, whether you've just recently been diagnosed with something, or if you see the writing on the wall and you realize it's time to pay attention to your health, or if you're someone like me who's been in this space for a long time and you're very aware of how to impact your health and now you're looking at ways to age well, then there's something for each of those, regardless of where you are in your journey. There's something for you there. For me personally, for somebody my age I mean aging well is a lot more than just looking good. It's really much more about yes, I want to live that extra 10 years, but I want to live it well. So if I live into my 90s, I really don't want to spend from my 80s to my 90s in a bed. I mean, it's that kind of impact on longevity and health, for the learning piece is probably the biggest.
Robin Switzer:There's 70 speakers at this event. They're either speaking alone on the stage or they're doing some sort of breakout session, or they're on panels, and so there's a lot to learn. I mean, I bring these speakers in because I still have a lot to learn too, so that's what I'm looking for in the speakers we're going to be discussing. One of the panels is on regenerative agriculture, so for people to get a grip on understanding really the impact of where you buy your food and where your food is coming from and how to make healthier choices. So we're going to have that discussion as well.
Robin Switzer:I think that's unique to most of these events. We actually have local ranchers from the area coming in to share their perspective on what they do, to give people an idea of what it really takes to have a regenerative farm and what that really means. Some of the other things you can expect to do. We have body spec is going to be there. Body spec makes this equipment that does DEXA scans. It gives you a scan of your body and tells you how much body fat you have, how much lean mass you have, how much bone density you have, et cetera. They do it at a discounted rate and they fill up every single year. They have six vans on the floor and they're doing-.
Jack Heald:Oh, they're literally doing it there.
Robin Switzer:Yeah, so they bring their mobile vans. Of course it's mobile, it's a van. They bring their vans on the expo hall floor and they have the DEXA scans built into the van and they're doing scans in every van, few minutes, all weekend long.
Robin Switzer:That's another thing that people can experience Cooking demos, learning how to use better ingredients and how to make things easy to cook in the kitchen. You can also taste those foods that are being part of the demos See book signings. Take a functional movement class. Learn how to exercise without weights by using functional movement and body weight. Jump in a cold tub. I mean you bring your bathing suit or your yoga flows or shorts and you can jump into a 36 degree tub and feel what it's like to experience an ice bath. It's pretty invigorating. Red light therapy saunas we have a company that makes hyperbaric chambers so you can test out what it feels like to be in a hyperbaric chamber. Lots of meat, steak and Pedersen's is always cooking like sausage and bacon.
Robin Switzer:Coffee, different drinks We've got a company that makes a really fantastic ketone drink that I absolutely love. It's called Tecton T-E-C-T-O-N and it's a super high quality ketone ester and I love the drink. They're going to be there and there's just a lot going on all throughout the weekend. Then the other thing is if you've been interested in your health for any length of time, then you've seen the celebrities in this space, including Dr Ovidia, and they're going to be there, so you have an opportunity to meet these individuals, and then the companies that have booths there. Most of the time, the owner or the founder of the company is there. So if there are people like you and I, they saw a need for a product and developed it themselves and now share it with the community, so it's just like a lot to learn.
Jack Heald:And I suspect it's going to be a very healthy gathering of people.
Robin Switzer:I have to tell you something. I mean this is going to sound kind of flighty, but there's something about attending a live event that cannot be equaled in any other way. So when you are surrounded by people who are passionate about improving their health, the people there are kind of operating on a different energy level. When you walk into that space you feel the buzz. You can't really get away from it and it lifts you up. So on Thursday, when we're setting up and everything and I'm setting up the registration counters and imagining those lines of people waiting to get in, it gives me goosebumps, because when those people arrive and they start walking through the entry doors, there's a level of excitement that I've never experienced in any other area.
Robin Switzer:The only thing I can equate it to is when you go to a concert. The only thing I can equate it to is like when you go to a concert and everybody there is so excited to see that one musician or one band. That level of excitement is what you experience here, but with the added I don't know ingredient of excitement. There's no negativity here. Nobody's negative about it, no one's upset about their seat or, you know, having to wait in line or anything like that it's very positive environment. So people just like you feel swept up into the momentum of excitement of being there. That's my experience.
Jack Heald:It sounds like you're describing just simply as an experience, like you're describing just simply as an experience, simply to have the experience is worthwhile, which is I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's really cool. I did. I was in the fitness industry on the software side in the early nineties and had been going to conferences in other industries for a while because of software and the fitness industry. Shows were like that Everybody was happy, Everybody was fit, Everybody was excited. It was just it was. I loved doing those shows for that reason, just because the vibe was so good, it was so positive. So that's exactly what they didn't have meat.
Robin Switzer:So, yeah, I would say not everybody is fit at this event. So, like I said before, people are coming to this event from all different, you know, starting points of their journey, so I wouldn't want people to feel intimidated, thinking that they would be the only ones that aren't fit, but everybody is very excited to be there.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Yeah, ultimately, I think everyone is interested in getting better. You know, and no matter where you're starting from, that's what this is really about and supporting people. You know you kind of started off your story by talking about the. You know the difficulties in. You know, implementing and maintaining. You know Atkins diet, because you didn't have anyone else around you doing it, you didn't have a community, and I think what these events really do is give people that community, give them the support and the resources and the education to just, you know, improve your health and in, you know all the different aspects of that, and that's what's really exciting is seeing all the different components that you've been able to bring together and they all, you know they all can play a part in people changing their lives. I'm excited about it.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:And there's also a couple of documentaries or, you know, film projects that are going to be screened as part of the conference. Some of them are going to be premieres. And, again, getting to meet the people behind that, behind those efforts, is another thing that I'm excited for. And I think back to, you know, the first conferences that I attended and you know, for me, getting to meet these people and learn from these people was very exciting and it's ultimately what gave me the confidence to start implementing it. You know, professionally, as I've done, I think that's you know the more that we grow this community, both professionals and non-professionals, the stronger we all get.
Jack Heald:Yeah absolutely why Austin?
Robin Switzer:Brian is from Austin, so he chose the venue and we've stayed there because the Austin community is they're free thinkers. The Austin community is they're free thinkers. They are very willing to take the reins and become the CEO of their own health. People are very willing to question standard advice, standard care advice and figure out what works best for them. But, honestly, I don't think we'll stay in Austin forever. I live in Florida and I mean there don't think we'll stay in Austin forever. I live in Florida and I mean there's people to help everywhere. So I envision us eventually doing this event in other towns, other cities too.
Jack Heald:I'm. You know I I often think about when I'm thinking about going somewhere how long is the flight having it be in the middle of the country? You know that helps my I go to. I actually fly to Austin a lot for business. So in fact Phil and I were talking before you came on. I'm actually going to be in Austin that week and I was leaving, I think, the day before the conference starts and you should stay. Maybe I should stay.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:We're going to get Jack there as well. Yeah, I'm excited about Austin, but of course, since I live not too far from you in Florida, I'll put a strong vote in for maybe in future years we have home. Conferences are always good, yeah, very excited. Maybe mention a few of the sessions or speakers that you're particularly excited for. I know you're excited for all of it, but let's give people a little insight into what and who they will see when they come.
Robin Switzer:Sure, let's see. There's the regenerative agriculture panel, of course, that I already mentioned.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:We're doing and that's being led by the meat mafia guys, right.
Robin Switzer:That's being led by Harry and Brett from the meat mafia.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Friends of the show.
Robin Switzer:Yes, they're good friends of ours and they've been incredibly supportive, very genuine people. I really like working with them. Then we're doing a panel Triumphs and Troubleshooting, the Carnivore Diet, which you, dr Philip Ovedia, will be speaking on as well, and that's being led by Judy Cho be speaking on as well, and that's being led by Judy Cho Nutrition with Judy. And then we are also doing a food addiction panel, which is being led by Mary Roberts, who is a food addiction coach and specialist. We're doing another carnivore panel called Feasting and Fasting, which is being led by Bella Ma, who is the steak and butter gal on YouTube, and she will have her team on that panel, as well as Dr Sean Baker, dr Chafee.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Anthony is going to be on that one.
Robin Switzer:And I can't remember his name. Now See his face, can't remember his name? Then let's see who else do we have speaking? Ben Azadi, jj Virgin Sean Wells, who is he is a specialist in the field of ingredients for supplements, so he's going to be speaking about pharmacology. We have my God, the list is so long Dr Annette Bosworth, who is also a good friend of mine. I said Sean Baker. We have Dr Eric Berg will be speaking. Dr John Jackwish will be speaking. Dr Christy Kessler, who is a radiation oncologist.
Robin Switzer:I mean we've got a lot of speakers. I'm not going to be able to remember everybody right now. I'm trying to picture in my head who all the speakers are. I should pull it up on my website so I can list them all.
Jack Heald:It's an awesome list.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:And one of the challenges, quite frankly, is looking through the schedule and, as we've been planning, we want to do a few things at the booth. I'm going to a few things at the booth. I'm going to be signing books at some point. We're going to have Grace Price there showing her documentary and she'll be doing a meet and greet and we were like, where do we put it? Because there's always something good going on. The speaker schedule is pretty packed. It's really going to be a great conference.
Robin Switzer:Oh yeah, schedule is pretty packed. It's really going to be a great conference. Yeah, I've worked really hard to try and figure out how we can cover as many topics as possible, bring as much information as possible to the attendees. In the past I've gotten feedback that I had too many speakers, so this year I actually did cut back on speakers, but we still have more than 70.
Robin Switzer:So it's kind of worked out that way. Craig and Maria Emmerich will both be speaking at the event. I don't think I mentioned them. Zane Griggs, I don't know. Have you met Zane?
Dr. Philip Ovadia:He specializes. Zane Griggs.
Robin Switzer:I don't know.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Have you met Zane? He specializes.
Robin Switzer:Yeah, I haven't met him yet. I know who he is, but I haven't met him, dorian. Greenow will be speaking from Keto Mojo Cool. Dr Amy Horniman will be speaking about thyroid health, maggie and Brad Jones, who are the directors of the Cancer Evolution documentary. They're going to be both speaking. It was Dr Robert Kiltz that I was trying to remember before, so he'll be on that carnivore panel as well.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:I don't know how you can forget Rob. He burns in your brain.
Robin Switzer:Yeah, and also Max Lugavere. Max Lugavere is he's never spoken at our events before. He's new to our event. I just I love his work and he's reaching a younger crowd, a different crowd than I think we that we reach with the metabolic health topic, and he came to this space after helping his mom deal with Alzheimer's and that's how he started studying brain health and nutrition and his story is really fascinating and he's actually I heard somewhere recently that he's actually getting ready to air a documentary that he has been working on all these years. It showcased not showcases, but his mom is part of that documentary and her experience and what he went through with her. So, yeah, there's just a lot. Unfortunately, I miss most of it because I can't be running it, oh my god but thankfully we do record all of the presentations.
Robin Switzer:I have a pretty elaborate AV team and they record everything and after the show we can provide access to anyone who wants to view the recorded content. So we also sell like a virtual replay pass for people who can't attend in person.
Jack Heald:I'm thinking back to your story, telling us your story as you personally got healthy. I'm guessing that, with the inevitable stress that comes with building a company and putting on one of these events with 10,000 moving parts, it requires a tremendous amount of stamina and emotional stability. Could you have done this prior to getting healthy?
Robin Switzer:Hell. No, no way, absolutely no way, no way.
Jack Heald:I love stories like this about folks in midlife going a new direction. My son-in-law has reached a point in his life where he's thinking he wants to do something different in the second half of his life than he did in the first half, and it's I remember being that age and thinking oh my God, my life is over, I've screwed up, there's nothing more I can do, I'm doomed. And then life doesn't work out that way. You can make a change. You can make a change that is not just positive and fulfilling but also meaningful to the rest of the world, and I think it's fascinating that for you, that started with your own health. Yeah.
Robin Switzer:I have to say that I didn't see this as the end game.
Robin Switzer:I have to say that I didn't see this as the end game Looking back, when I was thinking to myself God, I wish I could do something that would be more meaningful to me At the time. I was just saving big companies more money, making more money for big companies. I was making a lot of money too, but I didn't feel like it didn't mean anything to me. The people that I worked with meant a lot to me, but the work itself I didn't feel like it didn't mean anything to me. The people that I worked with meant a lot to me, but the work itself I didn't feel like I was really doing anything of value and I wasn't thinking to myself oh, I should be doing a health event to help people. I mean, this happened organically. I would love to think that I'm smart enough to have pictured what the what I would want to be doing. But I may be smart enough, but I'm I did not have the tools to make all of this happen by myself. It was all organic.
Jack Heald:Well, Phil, what about you? Wouldn't you say that's kind of the same thing for you?
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Oh, certainly, you know the shifts that I've made in my professional life and you know and I just think about you know all I do now. And if you had asked me, you know, 20 years ago when I was unhealthy, 10 years ago when I was unhealthy, if I would have the energy focus, you know, drive to do all this, I would have said you know no way. But here I am. And you know drive to do all this. I would have said you know no way. But here I am. And you know the results are obvious for me, certainly, and you know it's just a. There is something you know I've always, I guess, you know, had a sort of passion driven life and, you know, pursued helping people in some way. But being able to do it in a more complete way today is just so satisfying.
Jack Heald:Well, it's noteworthy that both of you had to be healthy in order to do this kind of work.
Robin Switzer:That's a good point.
Jack Heald:Not just because the work itself is about health, but because the work itself is meaningful, and I'd love for folks to get a hold of that. If you're stuck in life, if you're doing work that you feel like is a waste of time, that doesn't have any meaning, that's just simply moving stacks of paper from one file to another file, and you want your life to be more meaningful, maybe there's a health issue as well. Robin, I just think it's so interesting that I called it out when you mentioned it, that you are also having mental health problems because of being physically unhealthy and that those went away. That's not insignificant, that's profound.
Robin Switzer:I agree, I agree.
Jack Heald:I know so many people who struggle, physically, unhealthy, everything else suffers, I don't have to point it out, but it's just a reality and you get one thing fixed and other things tend to fall in place. All right, I'll get off my soapbox. All right, tell folks where they can go to get all the details on the Hack your Health conference and we'll wrap this up.
Robin Switzer:The website is hackyourhealthcom. There's a ton of information on the website about the speakers, the schedule, ticket options, discounted hotels, information about interactive sessions at the event lots of information there. And we created a discount code IFIXHEARTS for your community that will discount any ticket type by $50. The general admission ticket is $299 right now, so the price would be $249 with the discount code. You'd be hard pressed to find a three-day event for that price. That's at least $100 less than all the other three-day events that I've seen, and I'm really only doing that because I want to bring in as many people as possible. I don't want price to be the reason that people don't come. We do have other ticket options. There's a one-day ticket for Sunday only, there's a VIP ticket and there's a virtual replay ticket that you can buy access to the replay of all the recorded content that you get about 30 days after the show. Post-production yeah.
Jack Heald:So that is hackyourhealthcom. When you buy your, when you purchase your tickets, you use the discount code IFIX fix hearts, and we'll make sure all that information is in the show notes so you don't have to jot it down right this minute. You can just click on the link. Robin, thanks for being with us. This is very cool. I have decided in the course of this conversation that I'm going to change my plane ticket and I'm going to stay in Austin.
Robin Switzer:Oh, awesome, that's great. I look forward to seeing you there.
Jack Heald:It'll be great, Bill. I look forward to seeing you at the Hack your Health conference as well. We hadn't seen each other in person in a while, so it'll be nice.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:Oh really. Yeah, it's been a little bit Always good and for any of the audience that you know you want to come out and meet Jack.
Jack Heald:Oh yeah, I guess.
Dr. Philip Ovadia:I'll be there too, and all the great speakers, but we look forward to seeing everyone there.
Robin Switzer:Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Jack Heald:All right For Robin Switzer, the organizer and producer of the Hack your Health Conference. Dr Philip Ovadia, this has been the Stay Up and Operating Table podcast. Thanks for joining us. We'll talk to you next time.
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