Shahin's Corner - The Podcast That Bites
Shahin's Corner - The Podcast That Bites
Shahin's Corner with Special Guest Anthony Blanco - Transformative Journey from Injury to Ironman and the Power of Nutrition in Health and Business
Join us for an inspirational discussion with Anthony Blanco, an individual who turned his life around from dealing with a herniated disc to completing six triathlons, including an Ironman. During our conversation, Anthony shares his transformative journey, shedding light on the importance of systems, not just in business but also in nutrition. Listen closely as he reveals how he managed to decrease his headache frequency by making nutrition-related adjustments, such as eradicating caffeine and Diet Coke. Emphasizing the importance of personal accountability, a clear vision, and consistency in making lifestyle changes, Anthony's story is a testament to the power of determination and self-care.
Joining us is also Dr. Shaheen Safarian, who shares his experiences as an athlete and his own journey of reducing caffeine consumption. Together, we explore the different treatment approaches for TMJ, including occlusion and its relationship with migraines and headaches. Moreover, we delve into the significance of leading a healthy lifestyle, and how neglecting health can result in medical complications later in life. The conversation covers the five keys to better health that Anthony has identified, from having a clear vision to maintaining consistency in nutrition, and the advantages of having a coach.
Finally, we investigate how taking control of your health, nutrition, and adopting a potential-oriented mindset can directly impact the success of your business. Anthony shares invaluable insights about the role of social media and personal branding in assisting doctors in realizing and maximizing their potential. We also discuss personal and professional development for leaders and the power of collaboration. Don't miss out as we conclude with an exploration of the importance of clear communication systems in preventing chaos and lack of focus. Tune in for these valuable insights!
Hello, coach Anthony Blanco, I'm excited to talk to you on that podcast that we're getting ready to have coming up very shortly. Really quick about myself I've been a business coach for over 21 years. I've been nominated twice for Global Coach of the Year, out of 1600 other coaches in 75 countries. But we're not going to. We're going to spend just a tiny bit of time talking about that. We're going to talk more about the health and nutrition. I've got experience there too.
Speaker 1:My wife and I own another business that has been coaching people all over the country, with thousands of clients getting ridiculous results, whether it is sports performance or whether it is weight loss or just getting healthy in general. We've been able to make a difference. I know that I've experienced it. I, too, have had problems, so I've got a herniated disc. Currently, I've had three bulging discs. I was able to lose 45 pounds. I went on to complete six triathlons, with one of them being an Ironman, and I wanted to bring all nutrition philosophy that we do, because it's not about dieting, it's not about restriction, it's about living in abundance, and we're here to help you get not just what you want in business but in life as well, because here is something that we say all the time. Business is not life. Businesses to help you get what you most value in life. All right, we'll see you soon.
Speaker 2:All right, that was awesome, really excited to be here for another podcast of episode of Shaheen's Corner. I'm Dr Shaheen Safarian, founder of Love Bites Denil, and we do a bunch of different things. Today we have an amazing guest speaker with us, anthony Blanco. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, man, sonny. And Topeka Love it man. Topeka, kansas. We were just talking about what a beautiful city.
Speaker 1:That is right, yeah it's good man and I'll tell you what. People don't know this, but Topeka is like the geographical center of the United States, so I don't discriminate. I can get to all the major cities in equal amount of time.
Speaker 2:I hear you, man, I hear you Listen. Anthony and I met on a cruise of all things in Miami at the Denil Festival a few weeks ago now, maybe a couple months and I think I went up to him and said something and he's like who's this weird guy? And then here we are, a couple of months later, but we had a great conversation. We hit it off right away, and one of the things that's really close to my life and my heart is exercise, and I don't know so much about nutrition. I'm not the best when it comes to nutrition. I was just showing off what I was eating before we started and it wasn't too nutritional, but but as certainly exercise. And I think one part of this whole process is longevity health, and we're going to get into that a little bit. But first, anthony, let's brag about you a little bit. Who is Anthony Blanco?
Speaker 1:So, anthony, Blanco is a husband. I've been with my wife for 26 years, married for 22 years. I have three kiddos One's about to turn 18 and twin girls that are about to turn 15. I've been born and raised in Topeka my entire life and we're looking to adventure after the kids kind of move out.
Speaker 1:I've been working on or in businesses as far as as a coach or a consultant for just about 22 years now, and then 10 years ago my wife and I started nutrition business as a result of me losing nearly 50 pounds I was like 45, 46, 47 pounds and my wife losing 22 pounds and that was solely by fixing our nutrition first and then adding in exercise with what we wanted to do. So that's, that's the short story, and that's that as a business I mean, if you would. On the business side, as far as coaching goes, I started working with an organization, with a gentleman by the name of Earl Kemper, and since then which has been fun there's a franchise group that we're a part of been nominated as global coach of the year twice in five years out of 1600 coaches and 75 countries. So nutrition and business to me they're the same. It's about systems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're going to talk about systems towards the end. But you know, I will tell you a little bit about my background when it comes to nutrition when I, you know, I was a pro athlete, as you know, anthony, and and at 29, I started dental school and that's the first time that I started drinking coffee, and throughout I needed that because I just couldn't sit still for eight or nine hours in a dental school when I first started being so active and then, just, you know, becoming dormant basically, and so I was trying to find a solution to what I need to do to be able to sit and I was like God, am I going to make it through dental school? And so coffee I started drinking at 29. And then I was getting multiple headaches throughout the four years and I thought a lot of it was related to stress, and I continued to drink coffee, and about a year and a half ago now, I stopped drinking coffee. Now, granted, I still have some caffeine I mean, I like chocolate, so I eat some there. So I'm not completely done with caffeine, but certainly it's been reduced drastically. So that stopped and that reduced my headaches.
Speaker 2:It was at a point where I would get migraines at least once a month where I had to leave work, go home, shut the door.
Speaker 2:Many times I was nauseous, I would throw up, and that's also a discussion. When it comes to TMJ treatments, occlusion, there's a lot of different camps that talk about migraines and headaches and you know whoever is listening to this before and this is kind of really important right out of the gate and this is my personal story I will tell you I've done full mouth rehab, restored in a physiologic bite. My headaches continued. So occlusion is not always directly related to this. So I would say, for somebody that's listening in who thinks they have TMJ or have migraines and headaches, first thing that you really need to look at many times is your nutritional habits before you start really addressing a lot of the, the, the, the, the occlusal issues of oral cavity. But, needless to say, it reduced about 80% over the last year and a half. Well, over the last year now, and just about a few weeks ago maybe a couple of months now I stopped drinking Diet Coke, which is another thing that I stopped drinking, so that has also helped.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to, you know, get to that 100% and that's helped, you know to where. Now I really have minimal headaches, definitely don't have migraines to the level that I used to. I'm 90% better now, and that all kind of attracted me to my conversation with you on the cruise is to say, look, I'm personally getting just a couple of subtle changes of my battle with trying to deal with migraines and headaches as a dentist ironic, being an occlusal I have a lot of different. I have a lot of training and occlusion, and so I thought that was interesting and I'm sure that you can talk about this quite a bit as well. But so that's my personal story and my recommendations to a lot of the people that are listening in hydrate it, hydrate yourself, rest, get rid of caffeine.
Speaker 2:Some basic, quick things you can do away from all the MRIs, and I mean you know acupuncture, massage therapy, occlusal camps, you know orthotics and I mean with you know therapy. The list goes on and on and on of how, over the last 15 years, I've researched and also met hundreds, if not a couple of thousand, patients at my TMJ practice dealing with Figuring out why they're getting these migraines in these headaches that they can't get rid of, and so now you know from a personal story I can definitely share with them that that nutrition is a huge component. I don't know if you want to add to that. I know with your coaching that's certainly something that comes up quite a bit.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I'm a lot of the things that people suffer from. Actually, most Americans don't even know that. They're usually about three to four inches of Stomach, I think it's what is it called? Distended right, so it's pooched out. Most of that has to do with the food that they eat. What we've noticed is when we put somebody on a program and they start eating what everybody calls clean, so when they start eating the right foods for their body, what ends up happening is they actually lose that Distention, so they lose inches right away, and then Most people don't know is there's like a ridiculous amount of I'm gonna say it poop and people's body simply because you had mentioned water earlier is they're very dehydrated and so when we drink things like too much coffee, a lot of tea, a lot of pop, a lot of stimulants, we actually dehydrate our body from the inside and it creates things like constipation.
Speaker 1:It creates Overall like inflation in your stomach. So, hammering that water, you know, like one super key, hammer water first thing in the morning and it will actually wake you up and help your system get moving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know, I posted a couple of things on social media over the last month and there's really some quick, subtle things you can do, right, for example, stop eating after 6 pm, right? I mean, look, this conversation is a hard Conversation because it's easy to say stop eating after 6 pm, but when it's 9 o'clock and it's Monday night football and you want to put that beer pizza in your mouth and drink that beer, it's not easy, right. So it's a hard converse. It's an easy conversation but hard to actually be practical. But look, anything great we should all know this by now right, anything great is hard.
Speaker 2:Just earlier before, on this call, I had a doctor say hey, so what are you doing to get high-end patients in your practice? And you know you can't give quick answers, right, I mean a quick answer and a quick solution usually is not the right answer and it's not the right long-term solution. It just pleases you for that immediate gratification of getting an answer to your question. But the reality is everything is a journey, everything is a is a strategy. Everything that we'll talk about is a system that you have to create. So this nutritional exercise, healthier lifestyle, wellness, right, which is kind of the which is really the discussion here is a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle.
Speaker 2:So to go from eating pizza and drinking beer and, you know, not Resting well and you know just just having a really poor diet and being 25 to 50 pounds overweight, to wanting to create a healthy lifestyle is hard, yeah. So it's really important to understand and you know, the best answer to that many times, unfortunately, is you know, you'll have some type of a medical episode in your 40s or 50s or 60s that will finally wake you up to realize that your body is a machine and if you don't take care of this machine, it's gonna fall apart on you, not in your 20s, not in your 30s, but it starts to show itself, you know, after age 50. And, yeah, I mean, I'm really passionate about this discussion because a lot of these doctors that you know we talk about coaching a lot and, look, the fact is this If you're not healthy, you got nothing. Yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:Anthony and I always like to tell people like, yeah, I got to a point where I was training where I could do 67 pull-ups in a row, or I could do 25 pull-ups with an 80 pound dumbbell between my legs, and people would tell me, well, I can't do those things. I said well, I couldn't either. 10 years ago. 10 years ago, I was that guy that tried to get on a pull-up bar. I my only goal wasn't even to get a pull-up done. My first goal was just to hang from the pull-up bar for more than five seconds. That's how out of shape I was. I was also carrying the 45 to 50 pounds extra. And you talked about our bodies machine I had at the time, at the age of 26, when I went in for my first MRI, I had a herniated disc and it also had three bulging discs.
Speaker 1:Everybody that I went to Were trying to prescribe me all kinds of things. I mean, I went to vasiatrists, I went to chiropractors, massage therapists, I went to orthopedics, I went to all kinds of different people trying to find a solution, and the most popular solution was to medicate or to get Give me a shot when nobody told me was actually to strengthen my core and start eating better nutrition and lose the weight. And so I went from a chronic back pain there's probably listeners that'll listen to this later that if you never experienced chronic back pain, it is like the worst thing ever. I used to sweat Constantly because I was in so much pain Constantly I couldn't sleep, I couldn't stand, I couldn't rest, I couldn't do anything. So I had to do something and that's when I took action and Got my duty. We got. The first thing I did is it got my nutrition straight. So so tell me what?
Speaker 2:you did like. So you're 26, you got all these you know back issues and you're 45 50 pounds overweight. What is, what was your call to action? What, what, what did you do so? So?
Speaker 1:so I am 43 now, so at the age of 33, so between the age of 26, when I had the MRI, and then we searching for answers and then not really being clear with what I wanted right. So we talked about why and why and what I wanted to do I wanted right. So we talked about why in business and what we've got a why in life as well. So what are those things? Well, I wasn't clear and what I want. So I was just suffering through the pain from the ages of 26 to 43 or, sorry, 33, and then what did up happening is I had my baby girls and and what did I happen? They've got two of those carriers right, one on each side. Yeah, and I still my wife. I'm like, hey, listen, I'm gonna do this workout program. And she looked at me and she said how are you gonna do that workout program when you can't even hold your daughters? And I was like oh.
Speaker 1:So that was my call to action. That's when it got real and that's when I had to start making changes. So the what I did it because that was the call to action. So what I did is I got at the time. I didn't I didn't know to look for coaches, I didn't know to look for mentors, I didn't know all that stuff. So what I did is I just started reading and researching everything and what I found is is the the biggest key to anybody's success is not, is not Going into anything with this massive result, like I'm gonna go to the gym for 72 hours In the next, in the next three days it's been three days there I'm not gonna spend six hours a day at the gym.
Speaker 1:It wasn't that. All what it was is massive action was actually just being consistent over time, and so for the first 60 days, I actually just did something consistently. I made it a hundred and twenty breakfast burritos on a Sunday, and I ate breakfast burrito for breakfast and I make it a breakfast burrito for lunch and then I have little snacks in between and a healthy dinner. But what I needed to do is just get my mind at consistency. Do I recommend people do that right now, maybe maybe not, I don't know when you were talking about that, gentlemen, earlier. Like I don't know somebody's lifestyle, so what I do is I coach Customization inside their lifestyle. For me, I didn't make it super simple. That's why I made a hundred and twenty breakfast burritos with eggs and sausage and a little bit of carbohydrates, so that way I would have a meal that was prepped for me at least twice a day. So that's where it started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think one key component to a lifestyle change is really a mindset shift, right? I mean, a lot of times people are listening to this going okay, well, I'm gonna get a coach now, right, and I'm gonna get the coach to motivate me, and then three months later You're like screw this, this is bullshit, right? So the the challenge is is you really have to have that Personal, one-on-one discussion with yourself, right? I use this analogy in my presentation when I say get in front of an a mirror naked, look at yourself. You're a reflection of everything that you're seeing mentally, physically and the moment that you take accountability and responsibility. The accountability is the key word. You can't hire a coach to help you in your business. You can't hire a coach to help you with nutrition and exercise. You first have to have the mindset that you want to hold yourself accountable before you take action to hire those individuals, because once you hold yourself accountable, then now you're transitioning into that new chapter in your life. Otherwise, all you're doing is bringing on people to help you, but you're still the same person.
Speaker 1:I was going to say when I listened to your speech the other day. You talked about people's why or they have to have a vision. People have to have clarity on their vision. When you're talking about the conversation with themselves and in their head and making that commitment, well, they have to have a clear vision for what they want. When I find and I don't know if you find this, I'd be curious is that when I'm working with people just in general, just helping them with anything in life, in their business, and I ask them for a clear vision let's say health first, and I might have somebody say that it might be nice to lose 30 pounds they don't say I want to be this weight or this body structure and then I want to be able to do these things.
Speaker 1:They use softeners as a precursor to what they're about to tell me. What ends up happening is, as a coach, I don't accept softeners, but people will do that all the time. I'm a little fluffy, tony Robbins says. People say I'm a little fluffy. Then Tony Robbins say no, you're fat. When you start talking to yourself in reality instead of the softeners, is when you really are telling yourself the truth, because then when you're talking about that near conversation, then you really start to become dissatisfied with where you're at. But if you're not being true to yourself, you're not going to be dissatisfied enough to chase the vision for what you want.
Speaker 2:Look, I'm 53, and this is something that really comes from self-development. It really comes from maturing emotional maturity and development and finding and searching what internally makes you happy. A doctor can be internally happy doing $150,000 a year, or a doctor could be upset or not happy internally doing $400,000 a year. The point I'm trying to make is everything that we talk about, every action that you want in your life, first has to start with your internal understanding of what makes you happy. That's the challenge. I think out of the people in the maturity is the key. The maturity many times comes from failing in life, losing in life. The fear of that prevents you from becoming more mature, becoming more wise, understanding yourself better. Look, if you're always in the game of winning, your character never shows, your personality never shows. It's those moments as a leader, when you're struggling, when you're suffering, when you're having a hard time on an internal level, that's when you can really mature. Here's what happens Many times.
Speaker 2:People go, okay, I'm going to stop smoking at 60, when their lungs is already beaten up, because they've now realized there's an episode that's occurred in their life. Unless there's a health scare, people just continue doing the same shit. Why? Because it's easy and comfortable A lot of this. Again, it's hard. It's hard. The hard component is that accountability. I think we lie to ourselves. We want to cheat ourselves every single day Look, I'm not perfect, are you kidding? Ask my wife, shoot, ask me. But look, I can work to continuously to strive to become better. It's a process. I will never become perfect. I will never be 97% right If I'm working towards being more honest with myself, holding myself more accountable.
Speaker 2:I think those all play a very important role in nutrition, in exercise, in professional success.
Speaker 2:And then you're ready to bring a coach, if I may add, anthony, a lot of times people hire a coach and give them the 0 to 85%, which is their fluff, and what you need to do is you need to be ready at that 85% to hire and have a relationship with someone and mentor a coach what a consultant, whatever term you want to use At that 85% as you build that relationship, you want to get to your 100%, because it's the 93% to 98%, for example.
Speaker 2:That's where your true pain is and that's where your true benefit is going to be from a coach or from a nutritional individual that can help you or yourself holding yourself accountable to change your diet. Otherwise, if you're in the 0 to 85% game, you're just always in the comfort zone, you're always just fluffing around and you're not really getting to your max potential. And so I think my presentations as you listened, anthony is I want to get the doctors to that 85%, because then nutrition will be helpful, exercise will be helpful for them, coaching at a private level or a personal level or a professional level will be helpful for them. These are all from self-development and emotional maturity and I'm sure in 20 years plus, you've had a lot of experience with that as well.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I tell people all the time. My wife and I, we have a motto push play every day and the very first thing. So my alarm clock goes off at 4 AM, I've got YouTube pulled up and as soon as I walk out of the room I hit play, because I have YouTube lists and channels and motivation and things that I follow that I hit play immediately because that's what programs my mind for the rest of the day. Because if my mind isn't right and doesn't start right, then what ends up happening? My mental GPS is in the wrong direction.
Speaker 1:So what some people will do is their alarm goes off, they get out of their room and they might look at the news, they look at social media, they look at all these different things and all those. All that stuff is trying to drive ratings and trying to drive attention. So they're going to give you and you've probably heard this before is if it, what do they say? If it bleeds, it reads, or if it reads, it bleeds or something like that, right when if they get attention and show you the tragedy, then you're going to pay attention to that.
Speaker 1:So we teach everybody you've got to be mentally set for your day by putting positivity in first, and then you start adding in all the other things, because what ends up happening is, if you haven't put on your mental armor before you go to work, you're just going to get beat up all the time, and what it ends up being is you are a product of your environment. The question is is are you creating the environment or is the environment creating you? And what most people do is they give over the power to their environment, instead of saying how do I show up within this environment? How do I make changes? What do I watch? What do I read? Who do I talk to? What do I listen to? That fills my head with what I need to be for, who I need to become.
Speaker 2:So let's talk specific nutrition before we transition for the doctors listening to more of the business coaching. But let's talk what are three, four things. You know it's a wide net here, but what are three, four nutritional things that someone can do right now, today, to help them? You know transition into this call to action and you know journey. So for me, like I said, I cut coffee, I stopped diet coke. I still eat a little bit after 6 pm, let's be honest, right so. But you know I exercise. So exercise for me has always been my escape to my poor nutritional habits. Sure, I love to. You know I'm a soccer player and I get on a treadmill three, four times a week and you know I do my thing right. And so tell me what are those three, four things and then we'll transition into how this helps doctors and how PhAT is not good for business.
Speaker 1:That's right. So I'll give you five keys to getting the results you want in nutrition, but then I'll give you some nuggets with like when you're at the grocery store and what to pay attention to, because a lot of people don't know that because of all the confusion at the grocery store. So we talked about a couple of the five keys to getting where you want to with nutrition, and this is why it's important is vision. Vision for where you want to go right, because if we are clear with what we want, then we'll make the right decisions, or at least with the right intent, with whether we're going out to eat or whether we're buying something at the store. And two is you have to be honest and vulnerable with yourself, with dissatisfaction with where you're at. Three, you have to have a map on, and consistency with, what you're going to have and when. So how am I eating, what am I eating and when am I eating it? And then a coach to help you make sure you're being accountable to those things. And you have to fall in love with the process, because x, y doesn't equal z, because of our human bodies being in machine, which you would stated earlier, everybody is different and the process is this you have to be a rock in your determination for what you want and you have to be like a river in flow to your application. You're going to go over, you're going to go under, you're going to go through, but you're going to get to where you need to go. So those are the five keys to getting what you want with overall nutrition and health.
Speaker 1:Now, some simple everyday things is one everybody everybody, I would say thinks they know this, but they don't do it Hammer water first thing in the morning, first thing in the morning. Two is make sure that when you go to the grocery store, you pick something up off the shelf and it says high in protein or whatever it may be, and then you turn it around and you read the label on the back of the container. That will change your world with what decisions you make, because something that says that it's high in protein and you turn it around, it's only got nine grams of protein, but it's got 27 grams of sugar. It's not high in protein, it's high in sugar. So turn the labels around.
Speaker 1:And three, don't chase fad diets. So there's all these diets out there and what I want people to know is like when you're eating, eat not abundantly right. So eat right, but eat for abundance. What that means is when we feel better and think better, we have a more abundant life. It's not about restriction, it's not about dieting. It's not about what we can't have. It's about planning what we want when we want it. I don't stop eating pizza, beer and Mexican food, but what I do is I plan it into my week so I can get after it when I do so. Those are, I would say, the major keys for nutrition easy, applicable things to do with that side of things.
Speaker 2:Why don't we add exercise in there? Because I think those were amazing, amazing points. So tell me a little bit about how somebody can get on that fucking treadmill, right? I mean, tell me what's that part, because nutrition is one, but you got to exercise too.
Speaker 1:Oh, I get it. So, and just to give you, give everybody, a background. So I did have that herniated disc, which I still have. I have the. I had three bulging discs but when I lost my weight the bulging disc went away. I strengthened my core but I didn't start like all of a sudden going to the gym for 800 hours a day. What I did is I actually just started doing pushups, body squats and hanging from a pullup bar for three minutes. So I would do what I call 333-444-555. I would do three pushups, three body squats, and at this time I also did just three setups and I would do that for a full week and then I would do four and then I would do five. So it would be 333 for three minutes, 444 for five minutes, 555 for five minutes.
Speaker 1:Until you build up that strength and that confidence with what you're accomplishing, because what I do is I focus on creating 1% incremental gain every single day. See, what most people fail to do is they fail to follow a process and they go to the gym and they are on a treadmill for an hour. The next day they're ridiculously sore, their feet hurt, they're, everything hurts. Then they don't go back the next day because they say I need to take a day off because I'm sore and I don't want to hurt myself.
Speaker 1:What I would rather see people do, whether they're going to go to the gym or whether they're going to be at home, is just take it simple and if you just walk on a treadmill for 20 minutes but you do three pushups, three setups and three body squats and you do that for three minutes and you do that for a week and then grow from there, I started there and I went on from those that very, very basic task to complete six triathlons, with one of them being an Ironman. Last year I climbed two 14,000 foot mountains, I rode my, I did a gravel bike race for 150 miles, I ran a marathon and completed it in a workout competition, but that was 10 years later. I'm 10 years older, so I'm not getting older, I'm getting better and we can all do that. That's the thing.
Speaker 2:Listen, man, running 26 miles, I don't get it Right. I mean, like when I get on a treadmill, when I go outside for a run and I ran a lot outside because of the pandemic, you know six miles is kind of my max, six and a half miles Barely. Sometimes I get to seven miles. But, dude, I commend you for running 26 miles. I mean, let's be honest, what are you thinking in the 18th mile? I mean, are you thinking what am I doing? Or are you thinking like, wow, this is amazing, I'm having the best time of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm thinking that things I start actually going through my blessings and my appreciation because, because I tried to like the mind over body, your mind can go a lot, your mind is shut down before our body does right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Go into that space of gratefulness, thankfulness, appreciation, and then I also start working on things. When I run or bike is my most creative time. Tony Robin says that motion causes emotion, and so when I move I'm creative. And so during those long runs or hard workouts is when most of my creativity for coaching comes from you know, that's so amazing, what you just said.
Speaker 2:I mean that is an amazing point. When you find what you're, where your comfort is right. I mean like, for example, um, you know, going to a soccer game for me is exciting. Being on a soccer field is my, it's heaven, you know. I mean I'm, and you're right, it's. There's a lot of creativity that comes to you when you're at your most comfortable, relaxed state. That's, that's a really good. That's a really good. I'm gonna use that one.
Speaker 2:Actually, um, I hope you don't mind, anthony but I'll send you a venmo, no problem but look, here's the thing we got limited time, so now let's get into how we transition a a fit doctor well, maybe not fit, but um, how we transition from nutrition, exercise into business coaching. I mean, why is? Why is nutrition and exercise important in your business coaching? Where? Where do you think that? You know, do you think that professional success? Many times I mean I to be honest there's a lot of unfit, unhealthy, you know multi-millionaires and even billionaires out there.
Speaker 1:So is it really that important? Uh, what I was. So our philosophy that we work from is potential. We don't work from millionaires and billionaires and success success can only be defined by somebody's potential. So the the issue is is somebody might have a million bucks, but should they have two million? That's the question, and in most cases when we're working with businesses, I run into companies that I have dental practices that I work with, and after the last three years and this is what's really cool for the last three years this practice has been doing really well and they're like oh, we do really good, we just need to tweak a couple things. So we need your help with these couple things. I said that's fine, but what we did is I dug in and I looked at the capacity, so maximum capacity and potential for that business, but where I had to start was the mindset of the owner.
Speaker 1:So I had to start with the mindset of the owner, with what was possible and, believe it or not.
Speaker 1:I also talked to that owner about health and nutrition and working out, because what I had to do is create that confidence and strength that she could control the controllables, because sometimes our business feels so out of control with so many different components that we can't control it.
Speaker 1:So what we can control is ourselves on a daily basis, and once we do that, then we can also start at the same time duplicating that in our business, because it's the same. So then I talked to the office manager and I got her headed in the right direction with how to think about how to think that practice has performed about the same really well for the last three years. This year, when I was looking at their numbers over the last four years, on average they have collected $95,000 per month more than they had the last three years. So that's a direct impact on working in the mind and the body and the nutrition, and everything that we're working on makes a direct impact on the business. So can we be successful without it? Yes, but is it as successful as you're supposed to be? Probably not max potential.
Speaker 2:Um, and that's uh, that's such a strong word, right. I mean, look, I'm certainly not at my max potential and I'm striving to reach my max potential every single day, um, but I can tell you that, um, this, this mindset, look, I can tell you this when you're more fit and when you feel more healthy, you have more energy, you are more aggressive moving forward, you're willing to take more risk. Um, I think when you're down, when you're not as fit, and when you're a little bit more um, you're, you're a little bit more down on life, right, you're not as optimistic, you're not as big of a risk taker. You get tired quicker, um, and your energy level directly affects your max potential, yeah, um. So I can tell you multiple number of stories from recent and even the past that, um, I've seen, uh, I've seen doctors at work, I've seen team members at work, I've seen the conversations, I've heard conversations between doctors, um, and a lot of that has to do with internal, internal perspective on things.
Speaker 2:Um, and then this is why there's no quick answers to business. This is why, when you're on social media and somebody says, hey, so how can I do this? Or hey, how can I go there, there is no quick answer because everybody is so different our culture, our value system, our belief system and how we interpret things. Everything is so different. Um, and it's unfortunate, because a lot of doctors are looking for the quick, cheap, free answer on social media and it just doesn't exist well, I don't know if it's doctors, I think just people.
Speaker 1:People are looking for the button they're looking for the easy.
Speaker 1:Button right they're. They're looking for that immediate response because that's how we've been programmed is to be able to have access. I mean, look at tiktok. Tiktok produces information in 15 seconds. And I don't even watch all that much tiktok, I can't. I'm still trying to figure it out and understand it. But what it's done to people that do pay attention to tiktok is it's created an interesting effect. Now youtube has youtube shorts, so everybody's attention span for what they pay attention to. Like people probably quit listening to us like, uh, 55 minutes ago, a minute after we started, right they better not man shit.
Speaker 1:I want to learn now I want to be able to have the results now right, and what it does is we have to slow down to speed up, and we have to slow down, be real, be authentic, be vulnerable with ourselves and others in order to really make the impact that we're going to do. Because you had said a couple things just throughout us talking about energy. So you said that, and that's internal and external. So we have more internal energy and we'll also put that'll come across as our external energy. You also said that about pain, like we feel better.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that we come across with docs is a lot of pain in their shoulders, back, neck, all these different areas. Well, if you're carrying an extra five, 10, 15, 20, 30 pounds, that's going to create a compound effect on your spine as well. If you haven't been working on your core or haven't gotten a massage or haven't been to a chiropractic, gotten adjustment, that's also going to cause pain. And then it adds to your mental clarity, because if you feel good and you're eating the right things, you're going to have more mental clarity and then confidence. You said that right.
Speaker 2:So when we feel better, look better, all those things happen and we start to become that leader that we want to be well, let me tell you, in my conversations with doctors right now and in my presentations, one of the things I'm trying to push doctors to understand and realize is social noise and personal branding. And the challenge is it's so uncomfortable for these doctors and many times the first thing they think about is I'll just hire a company to do it for me, right, and I'll be on the outside and they'll do these stock photos and stock images, and you know, we'll put a couple of photos of my team and and there's my social media right, and a year, year and a half later they'll come to me and go well, I tried that and it didn't work. Well, you didn't try it right. The honest truth is, if you really tried it. One, you're going to have the energy to want to do this. Two, you're going to want to be uncomfortable because this is new for you. And then again, that that term accountability it's your business.
Speaker 2:Look, being a CEO of a dental corporation is something that we have no preparation for and, unfortunately, well over 95% of dentists open up a corporation, a dental corporation, and they run it like a dentist, and that's the. That's the unfortunate part and and I think part of this you know, pivoting into this social realm as far as social channels and tiktok and instagram, and you know voice is coming. You're no longer, in the next 10 years or even sooner, you're going to type in keyword search. It's just going to become voice. So your name is going to be really important, your face is going to be really important. Are you prepared for that? Listen to what's being said right now and most people it's going to go in one ear and out the other. Why? Because it doesn't matter. Today, today, right now, it's still keyword search, right. So you know part of this whole.
Speaker 2:We talked about this a little bit before vision plan strategy, and now we're going to talk a little bit about systems. I mean, how does all this madness come together while I still have to dentistry, clinical dentistry? I just don't have enough time in a day. So I create that roadmap as well in my discussions and my content of how you can do that. But look, if you don't have health, you got nothing. If you're not accountable for your actions, you got nothing. If you're not internally happy and you wake up every day upset, or you're going through the grind, as they say, in a downturn, right Cause you're not excited about that grind and you're not passionate about what you're doing every day, you're certainly not going to reach your max potential.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the systems is a huge deal. So there's an acronym that we like to use, called and maybe you've heard this or not but systems stands for saving you time, energy and money. And another thing that I heard is systems are provide you freedom, and that's where you can really start to execute as a practitioner and producer and leader and not have to worry about all the other things. Now, what I typically see again with everybody that I've all these docs and businesses and DSOs and stuff that I've spent time coaching is that we go and accumulate a system, we go get a system from here, we get a system from here, we get a system from here. So we're getting all these systems from all around us. We then bring them back to our practice, right, and we give them to our office manager. And what do you think? You know, what is the typical response of an office manager if our doc goes off to a conference and then they come back, right, what is the typical response? They're super nervous Cause all of a sudden, the doc got a bunch of stuff that they want to implement. It's not that the systems either work or don't work, it's that we don't work the system.
Speaker 1:And so, as a coach. What I do is I'm like listen, tell me about all the systems that you currently have. I want to know the front, I want to know the back, I want to know my position, I want to know everything. And what I find is and whether it's even technology what I find is is that nobody has diagrammed out like a. We talk about planning and strategy. Nobody's put in any planning or strategy in regards to implementing a system. They buy a system, they hand it to somebody and they don't give them an opportunity to actually implement the system over a time. We try to do way too much stuff when we have a system and implement it in a week, when maybe it's supposed to be implemented over 90 days. So we can measure, verify, prove and improve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I will tell you, the problem with that many times starts from the leader right and that leader themselves don't really have a system internally right, cause they just wake up and they just go through the motions not really having a plan. And I can tell you this is personal for me too. I mean, look my first 10 years and even today I still fail. Today there's so many things that I need to personally improve on even today at a personal and at a professional level, but certainly I'm that much further along than I was 10 years ago because of all of the things that I failed in.
Speaker 2:Greed gets in the way, ego gets in the way, the lack of patience gets in the way. There's a lot of internal challenges. I mean, the stock market, for God's sake, is mostly emotional decisions. I mean, everybody buys and sells many times on emotion. So that can't be. That really needs to be highlighted is is the individual person, and this is why I think, as much as we talk about nutrition and exercise and coaching and clinical dentistry, I really believe doctors today need to spend a lot of time on self-development, on learning more about themselves, on learning what triggers them, what makes them happy, what makes, and that's an internal journey, personal journey that you have to go through yourself, and maybe it's not so clear at 25. Maybe it becomes more clear at 40. But if you don't start that journey, everything around you is not gonna, is gonna, suffer.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting, you say about the leadership. So I have, and I've been, I've had so many conversations with people and I always ask an interesting question. So they'll say what do you? I always ask them, so tell me about your practice. Oh, this, this, this and this, and I'd really like for my leaders to be better leaders and I'd like oh, that's fantastic, Like everybody wants their leaders to become leaders. So, what are you currently doing? The key word is you, but I'm waiting for their response to see if they hear what are you doing for your leaders or what are you doing for yourself, Because leadership starts with us personally.
Speaker 1:But what most people do is they want their leaders to become better leaders, but they are not working on that personal development themselves. Right, and it would end up happening is we get trapped in the first law of leadership, which is the law of the lid. So if we don't take personal responsibility to grow as a leader and as a person and we're a leader level five, then our squad, our team, is only gonna grow up to a level four. That's the max they can go because you're occupying that seat. But if we get into the personal and professional development and we grow as a leader and we're seeking that all the time we grow to a level nine. That provides space for the rest of our team to grow up underneath us. So we have to take personal responsibility with leadership. Then that gives others the permission from that vacuum to come up underneath us.
Speaker 2:And I think that comes from help right. In other words, some doctors are like this is my secret and I'm not gonna share with anyone, because I know this and nobody else knows this. I got news for you, man your secret is out. Everybody knows everything you know. So all of your amazing ideas have already been used and they're out there.
Speaker 2:So I think the first thought that has to come into play is collaborating, networking and engaging right and collaborate and network and engage with your community, which is your peers, your doctors. Connect yourself with a community that gets you the things that you believe are your liabilities as a leader. So surround yourself with entrepreneurs. Surround yourself with people that are not in your immediate clinical circle. Get yourself around people that are going to help you advance. Get away from social drama and these you know Friday night and Saturday night social events that you wake up in the morning with a heavy, heavy mind and a heavy heart, for example, right. Surround yourself with positivity. Be with people that are going to help you move in the positive direction. So a lot of this is dependent on your immediate surrounding. Who you're surrounding yourself with, how are you using your energy outside of clinical dentistry and your business hours. You know who are you with over the weekend. What are you doing? Are you chasing social drama? Are you chasing you know what the leaders in your community are doing or leaders in the dental profession are doing.
Speaker 2:I think these all play such a large role in becoming more efficient and more effective with your time. I think that's really important, and doctors always complain about not having time. Listen, I talk about this. You saw this in my presentation. You can do $25,000 in one hour in production. You can do $25,000 in production in one hour. Okay, I've seen it. It's being done in this country by General Dennis, not specialists. So now the question is do you believe what I just said? Right? And the second question is build a team around what that niche is for you. Is it dental implants? Is it all on X? Is it smile design? Is it full mouth rehab? Whatever that is? You've got to be the macro leader and the macro producer, and so you have to think in that perspective, and you'd be surprised how much time you find.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a couple of things that you said, like being involved in other groups and you've got a secret and you think you've got it. There's a couple of different things. One is when we start with our mindset, with scarcity, we're not living in abundance. I once had somebody told me when I was like listen, I don't want to talk about everything that I do because I don't want anybody else to know, because I have the special way that I work with people.
Speaker 1:He said you're holding your hand like this. He said when you hold your hand like this, nothing can be put into it. You'll keep what you have, but you can't be added to. But when you have your hand like this, it's your hand that's open and that things can be added to what you're currently doing. And so when I heard, that is when my really went into full-time collaboration with everybody that I come into contact with, because it's not about what we get, it's about what we give, and the more that we give, the more that we will get. That's the way that it works. But what keeps us from that area is something that you had stated earlier is pride, arrogance and ego will destroy any business or relationship that we have. So it feels like, when you're saying things, I'm like we are on the same page in order to create that collaboration and that business that we want everybody around us to create, to live that abundant lifestyle, both personally and professionally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I tell you what I graduated at 33, dmd, MBA, professional athlete.
Speaker 2:I tell you what I was not thinking about collaborating, engaging and networking because I was one cocky guy and it's amazing. Now, 20 years later, the only thing I want to do is collaborate, network and engage. So that's been my personal growth and my personal development, through a lot of pain and through a lot of successes too, but mostly pain. So you got to look at yourself and I can tell you that and this is now really truly what I believe that I can grow much faster with my friends and with people that I collaborate with, over trying to do everything myself. I can grow much faster with your help, anthony, for example, or other individuals' help, than if I try to do everything myself and grow myself by myself, and that's an approach of reaching my max potential, is just that right there. So, with that said, look, tell me I know we talked about some key takeaways for nutrition and exercise Tell me some key takeaways for business owners that you go in and create these systems with that doctors can start using right away, anthony.
Speaker 1:OK, so here we go. So this is the equation that I use is clarity. So clarity leads to power, Power leads to focus and focus will maximize results. So we have to have clarity on what we want to accomplish in our business. We have to have clarity in our front desk area or admin. We have to have clarity in our back, our clinical team. We have to have clarity for our systems, clarity for hygienists, clarity for our doctor, and then, when you have clarity with how you want each one of those organizations to work, now you can systematize on how you want to work. But if you don't have clarity with what you want in that specific area, you can't define how you want that area of your business to work.
Speaker 1:Instead of creating power, it creates chaos. We want clarity to create power, and if you don't create that power because power leads to energy and the more energy that we have, the more focus we're going to have but what ends up happening is because we don't organize our systems and we follow the systems and we are always out looking for the next shiny object then we start to create chaos. One of the biggest things that I see when I work with the dental practices. They tell me this all the time, the practice manager especially. They'll say we're in chaos all the time, and not just chaos in our systems, but chaos in communication, Because usually they don't have a communication system, they are not communicating about the systems properly.
Speaker 1:And then what ends up happening is we have a lack of focus because we have apathy. Well, I'm not going to do the system. Or this is another thing that we're supposed to be doing. I'm not going to do it because last time we started something, we're not going to do this one, so why would we even want to implement it? And we don't want to be in a place where we have a lack of focus because, again, we're looking to maximize results.
Speaker 1:So, in reality, clarity leads to power, power leads to focus, focus maximizes results and it's that overarching platform. I mean, you can take those four things and then you can list things underneath them with what you need to accomplish in each area. But here's what most people will do is they'll try to hurry up and speed up to get something done, as opposed to listing all their systems, which is what I usually recommend looking at the highest priority systems, then building a calendar of system implementation and then implementing and reorganizing each system over the course of 12 months, but people want to solve everything yesterday, so we constantly create chaos, and so what I do is rain people in, get them focused, give them assignments, give them a roadmap. You talked about planning and strategy and then executing at the highest level.
Speaker 2:Well, I can give you one example If you're a doctor and over the last 12 months you have changed two, three, four, five, two, three, four, five different marketing firms, that's an example of chaos. That's an example of not having a plan or a strategy or a vision of where you want to take your business. That's one example. If you have a lot of turnover on your HR, that's another example of chaos. So I think those are very important points here and I know obviously we just are going through getting through a pandemic here and we've all had a lot of HR issues, but these are some examples of chaos and clarity and I think that's kind of what you're referring to when you're talking about systems. So if you are that dentist that has a dental corporation and you have a lot of chaos in your business, how can somebody get ahold of you, anthony?
Speaker 1:Right, so I make it super simple. I've got an email address that sometimes people confuse, so I just use my cell phone and I tell everybody to contact me and get an Anthony Blanco. But I tell everybody to call me directly at 785-554-8626, or text me. Just let me know that you were listening to this podcast. We'll grab 15, 20, 30 minutes just to chat. I'm a pretty easy dude to talk to. I'm not really complicated. I'm just here to help others. I always tell people like I passionately pursue people for purpose on purpose. I'm just here to help and that's ultimately what I wanna do. So call myself we'll talk.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, I had a great conversation with you in Miami on the cruise. It was actually a lot of fun being on that cruise and the time that I spent with you. I think our connection was very aligned in the fact that we wanna help people and I think that's really important in anything we do. Anthony, I appreciate your time Today. I know we had a little bit of technical issues here on your end we weren't able to really see you live on video that much, but we appreciate your time and thank you for all the knowledge and of over 20 years of being in this nutritional component, exercise and coaching doctors from around the country and giving them their opportunities to reach their max potential. I appreciate you and I appreciate our growth and our friendship moving forward. So thanks so much, anthony, and we'll be in touch soon, man, thank you.
Speaker 1:All right, thanks Bye.
Speaker 2:Well, I tell you what that was awesome. Now look, here's the thing. Like I said multiple times in this podcast, it's hard. Anthony gave you a list and hopefully I shared a few as well of to-dos you can do right now. Now the question is are you mature enough and are you holding yourself accountable to making those changes that it's going to make you better personally and professionally? Listen, I appreciate you all joining me. I'm excited about our future guests coming on. You wanna follow me on LoveBytesDenial. You wanna follow us and subscribe on LoveBytesDenial on YouTube to see more of these Shaheen's Corners podcast, and you can follow me on Dr Shaheen Safarian as well on Facebook and Instagram. Listen, collaborate, engage in network with your peers, your dental community. There's some amazing people in this industry that can help you. If you feel down, don't feel feel free to reach out, and we're here to help you. So thank you so much and we'll see you soon on another episode.