Jim Curtis: [00:05:20] Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Jim Curtis: [00:05:29] Well, the mission really is and has been starting with our founder, Joshua, who has created something truly amazing, is to create a ripple of health and happiness in the world. And when you think of a ripple in and dropping a stone into a water or a pond and you see the ripples going a larger and larger and larger. Our mission is to light-up people so that they can light up other people so that they can light up other people and somehow we can change the disease of this world the growing unhealthiness into healthiness, but it doesn’t just stop there because it’s not only about the health of your body and the food that you’re eating, it’s also the health of your mind and your spirit. So we can talk maybe more about that later.

Jim Curtis: [00:06:43] And, you know, the best thing about the ripple effect is every time that you make one small change in someone, you end up feeling so great. Just like, our creator or whatever we believe in as a higher power gave us this wonderful gift. And it’s and it’s when you help others, when you help out. I always say when in doubt, look out. When you start to help others, you just immediately start to feel better in your life.

Jim Curtis: [00:07:26] Well, because it helped me so much. So when I was 20 years old, I woke up in my left foot was numb. And it was just strange. I was I was living on Cape Cod and I was working as a waiter. I was actually driving my ten speed bicycle around because I was you know, I was having a lot of fun. I was drinking a lot. And I didn’t want to get in a car accident. So I was driving my ten speed bicycle around Cape Cod. And one night on the way home from work or the bar, I had a bunch of sand and I flipped over the handlebars. And the next day when I woke up, my foot was numb. And I immediately attributed it to this bicycle accent that I had on the way home. Thank God I wasn’t driving a car. And I figured that it was a pinched nerve or something and that it would go away. But it didn’t. It started to grow, meaning the numbness in my foot started to go up to my calf and to my leg. And then I start to get these terrible flu like symptoms and a lot of pain. So my mother, being an E.R. nurse at Boston Medical Center, took me to get an MRI and with an MRI showed us that I had  a tumor on my spinal cord.

Jim Curtis: [00:08:34] So it was almost as if the universe, our higher power, whomever got me in that little bicycle accident to get me to check something out. And so when I realized that I had this issue, I started to go all around the world looking for a diagnosis. How did this happen? It wasn’t cancerous. It looked like they were growing and shrinking. So it wasn’t multiple sclerosis. And I went everywhere and it felt as though I had so much inflammation in my body. So it took years. It took years to kind of figure out where it was all the way to the point where one day I woke up and I couldn’t walk. And so I started to look more holistic because everybody from the Cleveland Clinic to the Mayo Clinic to Johns Hopkins Medical couldn’t figure out what it was. So I started to look towards Chinese medicine. I started to look towards Ecuadoreans, shaman, grandmasters of kung fu. Anybody who could work with energy. And I started to do my own work internally on my body energetically. And what I found is that through our minds, we create so much inflammation in our body that I was creating inflammation around pain points in my own body. And when I was able to lower that inflammation, I was able to have better results with the treatments that I was getting from typical Western medicine.

Jim Curtis: [00:10:00] And I end up seeing about 200 different gurus or healers. And some are great and some were not. And I ended up writing a book about it. But what happened to me is that it led me to not only have a spiritual practice, but understand that we are all vibrating at the cellular level and that energy is important, but also that our food, the food that we eat kind of fuels the machine. And you can. Put in great food into the machine and vibrate at a higher level. Or you can put in terrible food into a machine and really screw up that vibration. And so when I started, the last foray was it was with food. And when I started to eat a really clean diet and add this to everything else that I had learned, I just felt so much better. I felt amazingly better. I’m walking again. I’m fit. I have very little pain. And I was able to in many ways, heal myself. And then I started to try to heal others. I’ve found a way to hit a massive audience with the jobs that I worked at or the book that I wrote or a TED talk. And then I found I and I actually was going through the course and I started to work for the company as well. So that’s a little bit of my story.

Jim Curtis: [00:11:58] Oh, yes, yes.

Jim Curtis: [00:12:14] It is. And I love that you said not perfect, right? Because I am so not perfect. But I think that imperfection really allows you to understand the good and the bad, and that helps people. Right. So the most damaged of us that we were able to recover or are in recovery from that can spread the most good. So what with the mind? Oftentimes we get caught up in our thoughts and we don’t even realize we’re thinking our thoughts and especially in relationship to people. If you have a relationship, a love relationship or just very close friends and family, you find yourself reacting to them either good or bad ways without even realizing reacting. Oftentimes, if you’re in an argument or any kind of conflict, you find yourself reacting without even knowing. You’re reacting like you are in the story instead of watching the story. So it’s really important to start to realize like, oh, I just ran this entire loop in my brain or I’ve been going down this rabbit hole thinking about stuff without even realizing that I’ve been thinking about it obsessively or that I just said that or that I just took that action or I had those terrible bad thoughts in my head about myself instead of being my biggest supporter. And the real secret is to take a step back and to realize we’re creating our own reality. Therefore, we can watch the movie of our lives instead of being so caught up as a character in the movie. And how do you do that? To take a step back is really breathing and mindfulness and meditation.

Jim Curtis: [00:13:55] And I know those things are such buzz words today, and it’s only because they work so well that everybody is kind of waking up to this. But Dr. Andrew Weil has this Spock’s breathing technique that you breathe in, you hold, you breathe out, your hold. And if anybody is interested in that, I suggest they they Google it and find it. But it slows down your mind so that you can start to be more mindful about, oh, did I really just have that thought that I just really say that negative thing to myself and that I just have a conversation with someone and not really know what I was saying and now I regret it. It slows down your mind enough so you can be mindful and aware that these things are happening, because the most important part of that is to be like, OK, I’m aware of it. I can do something different. I can make a choice in a different direction. And then when you start making the choices based on awareness that you feel best about inflammation and your mind goes down and when you’re in your mind is not inflamed, meaning like anxious or obsessive, then you physically release less quarters, all another stressful chemicals in your body and the inflammation in your body goes down and that lowers pain and just allows you to operate at a much better level. So start with the mind. Start with breathing, meditation, mindfulness.

Jim Curtis: [00:15:42] Well, I would say if you’re thinking like I don’t think there is a thing that the Dalai Lama have a quote in my office that says, if you have time to meditate, meditate for ten minutes, if you don’t have time to meditate for ten minutes, meditate for an hour. Meaning listen, we can get on social media and go down the rabbit hole of Instagram. And before we know it, 30 minutes has gone. We always have. We always have time, even if it’s three minutes to do some box breathing and just settle our minds. We always have the time. So the biggest thing is to be mindful of yourself, telling yourself that you don’t have the time and then make a choice. That’s different. Saying I’m going to carve out three minutes or 10 minutes right now to do this because I know I’ll feel better. And what’s important about that is really hearing. So when I was first beginning with meditation or just mindfulness, what I would find is that as soon as I sat down to do it, my mind would fight back literally. Like as soon as I started to say, OK, this is my time to like settle myself and to get mindful and to breathe. Everything would come up like you forgot to pay that bill. What about the dog? What are you going to have for lunch? Oh, my God. I have to like do this right now. And really, you don’t really you don’t have to do any of that. Now, that’s the sum, Sara. You know, that’s the crazy deluded mind that we all have. If if we’d followed Buddhism and that’s what some of the tenants are and really you’d just have to make the choice and force yourself a little bit at first to say, I actually do have this time I’m going to do it and do it.

Jim Curtis: [00:17:33] I love Emily. She’s great.

Jim Curtis: [00:18:05] Oh, that’s fantastic. Did you notice that just 50 percent of the people that spoke at that conference were using some type of meditation for the crowd? It’s really caught on. And those conferences are so much fun. All students get to go to the conference and you get to be upfront and personal with people like Andrew Weil or Mark Hyman or. Or yourself.

Jim Curtis: [00:18:50] Well, you are on 2012. Scott, you’ve been so successful since you graduate. That’s fantastic. I love watching you on Instagram doing the thing. So I’ve even used your supermarket shopping guide. You know, we were just in Dubai with you as well. And Aly, our marketing manager, came back and said such wonderful things about the good work that you’re doing. So that’s just goes to show the people that go to I and the people that are focused and progressive and take hold of their lives and make this commitment become very successful because they’re already in the mindset and then they get the knowledge that they need. So what’s changing? OK, so what’s changing is we are updating a lot of the content. So we have some new folks coming on. Hopefully you’ll be doing some curriculum with us. We have Sahara Rose, who is going to be a visiting teacher. We have Jenny San Susi, who is going to be teaching about herbs and CBD and mushrooms and the healing effects of those. We are updating the look and feel. So the more modern and more vibrant and we’re updating how you can actually take the course online components so that it’s easier to get what you need in regard to your materials to use as a coach. We’re updating the business pieces of it so that you really have an understanding of how to run your own business. But now that so many different companies are actually hiring health coaches, how you could go and work for a hospital or a wellness center or some other company? That has corporate wellness. So we’re updating the content, the look, the feel under the design, and that’s almost all done now. So in January, the January 13th course, which I hope that people sign up for when you start to get some taste of this. And it’s just a really exciting time. So since you graduated, we have Robin Youkilis in the curriculum and now there are other great experts that have become visiting teachers.

Jim Curtis: [00:21:37] Yes. We joke around the office that we’re the OG’s of wellness because our founder Joshua started this in his kitchen in 1992 and there wasn’t health coaching, really. He started this. He started this movement of health coaching. And after 30 years, he’s retired. We still keep them in the curriculum. But what’s interesting and what we love so much is the people that go through our program become so successful that most of the other programs are not most. But the biggest ones, the three biggest ones that I can think of have been started by graduates of I. And they went on to start their own teaching programs. And sometimes people say, do you think that’s competitive? And I don’t I don’t because there are 100 million pre-diabetic Americans. I can’t get to them all. We may be the best. We may be the original. But I’m so proud of those students who have graduated and taken what they’ve learned to the next level for themselves. What also sets us apart is that where licensed vocational school, where an actual vocational school. So this is not Jim Curtis saying, hey, I have a new health coaching program. You should learn from me because I have things to say. That’s good. But this is a licensed vocational school by the state of New York. That means that you actually get college credit. If you were to apply this towards a college education that’s about 40 credits, you have the highest standards in education because we’re audited. They come through and make sure that our curriculum is up to date. Make sure that what we’re teaching people is correct and safe and a wonderful way, meaning it has to go through an audit for how we provide the information as well as what the information is. So, you know, there’s a real credibility there.

Jim Curtis: [00:24:16] I agree with you. There’s 100 different dietary theories that are taught by the biggest, most well-known names in nutrition and health world. I would say. And so you really get a great understanding of everything. And what we call something is bio individuality, meaning you need to know a hundred different theories because there’s no one size fits all when it comes to health. You know, when you someone may respond really well to a vegan diet and you may believe that that is the correct choice for yourself or for them, but other people may not. Right. So you need to find out and tailor the program to the person as opposed to the person to the program. And unlike any other school, we teach a hundred different theories from all the different experts out there. But then we give you the business tools that you need and then we’re going to be partnering. Gabby Bernstein and Mary, for Leo to enhance those, this coming in 2020. So really important that it’s not just trying to fit in one size into one state point of mind. Instead, you have bio individualities. So we teach you a hundred different dietary theories and then get into the primary foods, which are my favorite. And we talked about this primary foods specifically are how do you have purpose in your life, a spiritual practice that really lifts you up and awareness, meditation, kind of. What are your relationships like? You know, that type of thing. Those are your primary foods. What’s not on your plate? And then you get into the nutrition of your life.

Jim Curtis: [00:26:11] So the role of the health coaches growing and it’s super exciting time. It’s such an exciting time. So the American Medical Association just released the initial CBT codes for health coaching. And what does that mean? A CBT code is the initial code that allows you to submit to insurance so that insurance will pay for health coaching as you’re a patient, right? We’re not there yet. So these initial CPT codes will allow us to get data to show that health coaching is actually effective on someone’s health. And then we’ll move towards payment. And so if you think about it, say, why is this important? You know, health coaching is we don’t need to be part of the health care system. We’re fixing the health care system. And I say that. That’s correct. But this is important. If you think about it, chiropractic and massage are now covered by insurance. And before when they weren’t, they were kind of these fringe treatments. And now that they’re covered by insurance, so many more millions of people can afford to get them. So when health coaching actually becomes covered, which we’ve taken the initial step, this will be mainstream. It’s already mainstream and growing. This will be available to all whether you can afford it or not. And in advance of that. Hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic with Mark Hyman are hiring health coaches to start.

Jim Curtis: [00:27:35] In today’s health care system patients get eight minutes or less with their doctor. Health coaches pick up the slack and they actually guide you through what you need to do within your health care, whether it’s from a treatment plan or guide you through a nutrition plan or how you should just live healthier in general. But you need to do for next steps. They become the guides when the doctor. It gives you the prescription, your eight minutes with him, and this is what’s happening. This is your advocate. The health coach becomes your advocate in actually achieving what you need to do. Even wellness center ads, big ones like the well that just opened up to graduates from I and Sarah is one of them opened up by some place called The well in New York City. And they’ve hired 12 health coaches from my eye. And there are so many different work opportunities, whether starting your own business and having individual clients to working and large companies or hospital systems. And it’s really as the guide and the advocate for patients so they can feel better.

Jim Curtis: [00:29:59] It really is. And why does something like that happen? It’s because there’s a real need when you try to force something like, I’m going to create this and make people want it. Maybe that happens in fashion, but not not in the other important parts of your life frame. So it’s born of a real need and a real issue in the world, and that is more and more people. If you read the New York Times article recently that came out called Our Food is Making US Sick about how much sugar. Dr. Mark Hyman says we eat like a liter of sugar a day or something. Absolutely crazy. It’s literally making us sick. So the reason why this is growing so quickly is because it’s needed so badly.

Jim Curtis: [00:31:29] I think it’s going to continue to grow. I agree with you. And in the next five to 10 years, I think it’s going to be paid for by insurance. I think that it will go through and get its own CPT codes. I think that health coaches will be a everyday adjunct to what you’re doing in regard to your health care. So I believe that health coaches will be on staff and every what they already are, but in every hospital and every wellness doctor’s office. But I also think that health coaches will be far more in demand in starting their own practices like doctors are and have many patients coming so that people can specialize. So I believe health coaching will get more specialized meaning. I’m a health coach that specializes in inflammation of the gut or the gut biome or health coach that specializes in healthy eating behavior or emotional eating or I’m a health coach that specializes in meditation and mindfulness. So already you can start to end with IIN and you can start to specialize in these things.

Jim Curtis: [00:32:34] But I believe like doctors, you know, in the early days of medicine there, you went to the doctor. And then as it became more and more evolved, you started to go to specialists. You went to your endocrinologist or your neurologist or, you know, there’s just any doctor that you can go to is a specialist. I believe that health coaching will go in the same way. So now as as you sign up and you get the information. And you get your certificate. We offer courses that can give you a specialty like gut health, the microbiome is your second brain and it’s very important and talked about often today or hormone health or emotional eating or business. There’s also a big business aspect in this, meaning we often forget that understanding how we make a living in a healthy way that that empowers us. It is part of our wellness. So we offer business tools.

Jim Curtis: [00:34:01] Maria Marlowe, that’s a good one. Yeah, you’re super inspiring. I love what you’re doing, bringing what you do to Dubai and that you’re really global. And that’s that’s what’s important. I think oftentimes we’re based in New York City here for IIN and we have students in 155 countries. But we start to think about like our little worlds, which are a couple of miles around where we live. And this is a global phenomenon, knowing that when you get this education, you can literally work anywhere. Australia is a big place for us now. Canada, Dubai is breaking into the wellness scene in a massive way. So you’re doing awesome work.

Jim Curtis: [00:35:02] I also love what Jenny Sansusi is doing. Jenny San Sushi came out and she became an expert in CBD and medicinal mushrooms and she became a coach for folks to see really what these herbs can do for their health. And then her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she started to experiment on him in regard to the healing powers of medicinal mushrooms, cannabis and CBD. And she really believes that he has been so healthy for so long, was such a difficult diagnosis. It’s because of these things. And she went on to get a book deal and is launching her book in just a couple of months time. So I think it’s going to be called The Rebels Apothecary. So she’s one of my favorite success stories.

Jim Curtis: [00:35:39] But we also have we have Bobby Brown, who I’m interviewing today. You know, Bobby Brown from Bobby Brown Cosmetics.

Jim Curtis: [00:35:51] Yes. Yes. And she’s awesome. I love talking with her. So Bobby is, we’re doing a webinar today with Bobby, and I think it actually goes live in a couple days. But she really was created Bobby Brown Cosmetics and was super stressed out in her job, ended up, you know, selling the company. And going through the eye and course and starting something, a new business that is much more holistic and driven by health. So those are called big names. But every day I get emails and on our social media comments from students who have gone on to have 10, 20, 30 clients that they see on a monthly basis. So they’re really spreading the ripple effect by creating their own practice individually. And they’re making a good amount of money, too.

Jim Curtis: [00:37:37] Yes. And it is. Don’t worry. It’s not as important as you think. That’s a good one. None of it really matters in the grand scheme of it. I mean, all of this matters, right. And just to put some information on that at all matters. But the things that you’re worrying about so much today and a month, you’re probably. Don’t worry about them as much. So it’s not as important as you think.

Jim Curtis: [00:38:08] Yes, exactly. That’s my old. That’s what I tried to every day. Just the inflammation of the mind, reducing it.