Episode 147: We Will HELP You Build Your Biz w/ Our FDNthrive Program w/ Jo Pate, FDN-P

Introduction

[00:00:00] Detective Ev: What is going on my friends? Welcome back to another episode of the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. My name is Evan Transue, AKA Detective Ev. I will be your host for today’s show about helping you build your biz.

We’re talking to my friend and colleague today, Jo Pate. She does a lot with the podcast as well. She does the social media stuff for us, she’s on our podcast meetings. And she actually controls all of FDNthrive. She makes sure that operates properly.

FDNthrive is something that you might not have heard of on this show before even if you’re a regular listener. We are going to break that down pretty soon. It’s been a while since we mentioned it, but it is relevant for those that are going through the course, which is our main listening audience now. You guys are usually interested in the course, or you’re trainees. So we are going to explain this today.

Jo also has a health story. It’s pretty incredible like the rest of the people that hop on here. I think you guys will really like this one. She had a pretty strong family influence from her grandmother. Her grandmother was way ahead of her time as you’ll hear. She planted the seed in Jo’s mind to be open to the natural side and to consider what was actually going on in one’s body when symptoms arose.

It was because of this seed that was planted, that Jo was actually able to get these health conditions under control way quicker than most people would, honestly, if ever. The stuff that Jo dealt with, some of it was life-threatening. So, if it wasn’t under control in a timely manner, who knows what could have happened.

About Jo Pate & FDNthrive

I’m very grateful that everything worked out and I’m even more grateful for her to come on here and share this story with us. So, a little bit about Jo, she came to FDNthrive as an entrepreneur and has been a certified FDN practitioner since 2018 and also a member of the FDNthrive team since 2020. She uses her dual experience to provide more practitioners the tools to succeed on both client and business platforms.

But to be clear, Jo also has her own practice where she takes on clients. If something in this show resonated with you and you want to work with her, we’ll mention that towards the end of the show, but she kept the bio to the FDNthrive thing because that’s the main topic of today.

FDNthrive is a program that I wish was around when I first got started in this. I actually asked for something similar to this. Then I found I was part of a pretty solid list of people who also wanted something like this. FDN always kind of delivers on what the majority wants and needs, and they came up with FDNthrive. Now what this is, is a program that actually helps you get the business training that you need to go out and do this work.

Are there job opportunities that are available for FDNs? Yes. Are there independent contractor positions that are available for FDNs? Also, yes. But it’s undeniable that at the time of recording this, the quickest and most efficient route to getting to do this work that you love, especially if you wanted to do it full time, is to go out and start your own virtual business.

We Can Help You Build Your Biz

The good news for you is that we’ve been doing this for years, long before the online thing was cool. You know, prior to the pandemic is what I’m saying. People have been doing this for a while and we have the experience and systems in place for just about anyone to do this. I really do believe anyone can do it.

But I’m also open to the concept that some people are better at sales. Some people are much more personable with others. Listen, we can’t control that part. There is no doubt that some people are going to have massive, massive success because of things in their personality. Others might have to really work on certain things to get to that level.

What we can pretty much say with a lot of confidence is that if you’re willing to go through the business stuff that we offer post graduating FDN, if you feel like you need that, maybe you don’t, but if you do feel like you need it, I feel pretty strongly that we can get just about anyone to doing this work full time, replace a normal job. I think that’s very possible and attainable for most people.

So, we’re going to talk about something called FDN Business School pretty soon on here. Stay tuned for Jennifer Woodward. She’ll be making her third appearance on here to talk about that. But basically, what it will look like is this now. You graduate FDN, that’s the course, that’s the health stuff. If you feel like you need business support, then you have a couple of options.

AFDNP is a No Brainer for FDN Grads

Well, the first thing you do is you can join AFDNP, which is the Association of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioners. That’s not just a business one, that is an advanced health group. This is something that I am still a part of myself. I absolutely love this thing. I always say, I think this is worth the price of tuition in and of itself. But at the time of recording this, AFDNP is literally only $33 a month for graduates. And it’s completely optional. It also counts for continuing education credits for FDN if you choose to do it.

So, in my opinion, it’s kind of a no brainer because I can go in there any day of the week and ask a question, even a very technical one or a business one, and I’ll get someone who would answer. I actually just had someone recently. I was asking about a dog thing. I needed to know if anyone knew a holistic vet, and someone answered within an hour. I was able to share that with my friend. So, I think that’s a wonderful thing.

Now, FDNthrive is a few steps above that. So AFDNP is this group that I recommend every single graduate join if you’re actually serious about doing this as a career. If you just did it for the sake of it, which I don’t know many people who do that, but if you did do that, maybe you don’t need AFDNP. But if you’re looking to do this as a business, or you’re going to be running labs consistently, absolutely no brainer.

Business School & FDNthrive Will Help You Build Your Biz

Then there’s business school. That is a course where you can go through the business essentials, you can learn the marketing stuff, sales stuff, all of these different things that we’ve learned. There’s many, many modules in there. I would imagine that that’s going to be what most people need if they’ve never done business before. But yet, if you still feel like you need something, then there is going to be FDNthrive.

FDNthrive is that end of the chain, at least at this moment. I don’t know why we would need more necessarily. But FDNthrive is where we actually work with you in group settings. Sometimes, maybe even like a little one-on-one thing, but mostly small groups. And you’re getting more business training.

You actually get to take on clients from the public that we get. We charge them just to be clear. We’re not paying the people for that, but you get to actually work with real people who have real struggles and real health challenges. Then when it works, what that is intended to do is raise your belief and realize, well, wait a second, this person just paid FDN this amount. I worked with them. It worked really well and they’re super happy. Maybe I could go do this myself.

But while you’re taking on those clients, you have all the support you can imagine. You’re learning other business stuff, you’re in these group settings, like I said. It’s really a powerful program.

I was actually a part of that before, even this podcast was a part of that before we moved into the course side.

FDN is a One-Stop Shop to Help Build Your Biz

We’re going to talk about this more in the episode, obviously, but I want to preface this properly because this is a really cool thing. I would say it’s one of the top questions that we get from potential trainees or current trainees is wait a second, how do I do the business thing?

FDN has your back. These are paid programs. You can choose to do them. There is no requirement to do them. If you already have business experience, I doubt you would need these things. But if you do need them, FDN is kind of a one-stop shop. So, I’m really excited to share this with you guys. I’ll also be excited to share Business School when Jennifer Woodward comes back on.

But for right now, I know you want to hear about this and not hear from me. Without further ado, let’s get to the episode.

All right. Hello there, Jo. Thanks so much for being here with us today.

[00:07:08] Jo Pate: Thanks, Evan. Thanks for having me.

[00:07:10] Detective Ev: A long time coming.

Jo and I have been working together in one way or another since what we’re going to talk about today got started. We’ll get into that a little more later. But Jo is also an FDN just like all of us. She is someone who has a health story. Before we get into the topic that we’re going to get into today, which is very business oriented, and we think those of you considering pursuing the FDN course or those that are current trainees are really going to like this.

Looking For Answers & Finding None

This is something so many of us as long-term graduates have wanted forever, now it’s finally here and it’s working really well for people. But again, we’re going to get started with the normal way that we do on this podcast. I just want to know what did Jo’s health symptoms look like and when did they start?

[00:07:50] Jo Pate: You know honestly, I had some symptoms and things that were happening when I was younger, when I was in my twenties and thirties, like most women do after they’re moms. Then I worked really hard to try to figure it out on my own and thought I had it all figured out on my own. Then you know, life happened.

I was having issues with everything like weight gain, hormonal issues. I ended up in a hospital with fibroids, the size of a 17-week pregnancy. Odd thing was my daughter was 17 weeks pregnant at the same time with her son. So, our stomachs were like the same size, it was crazy.

I kept looking for answers and kept looking for answers. There were none. Their answer of course was you gotta take it out. You just gotta get rid of the problem. Eventually an ER visit landed me in the hospital, which required surgery. After that happened, because I couldn’t find answers anywhere, I couldn’t find anyone to help me, I tried Chinese medicine. I tried chiropractic. I tried all the things. I tried the Googles, doing it myself and I just couldn’t.

I’m sure you’ve been there. You know, you’re just like down the rabbit hole with Dr. Google thinking, I’m going to figure this out. There was just so much information coming at me that I couldn’t sort through it.

Thinking No Woman Should Have to Go Through This

After all that happened, I was like, I don’t think any woman should have to go through this. This is not the answer because there’s so many things in my life that it changed. In fact, a medication that they gave me prior to surgery actually created issues that I’ve had since the moment I woke up from surgery that I’ve had to work very hard to try to just manage. It’s done some damage that I have to manage. It’s symptoms that I manage.

I don’t know that it’s anything that I can ever completely rid myself of. Because sometimes that happens, right? Sometimes there’s damage from things that are given to us in some way, shape, or form that all of a sudden, you’re trying to figure out how to manage that situation. I was like, no woman should have to go through this.

Then I really started digging into there’s gotta be an answer somewhere. I happened to hear Reed in this Facebook live thing and I resonated immediately. I told my husband, I was like, I’m taking this course. He’s like, what? I said, I’m taking this course. I’m telling you; I’ve got to take this course. I made him listen and he said, Hon, if that’s what your heart’s telling you, then you go for it.

I did, and I never looked back, and it was the best decision that I ever made in my life. I mean, it’s changed everything.

Helping the Community that Helped Us

[00:10:35] Detective Ev: That’s so cool. It’s like, I love hearing these stories especially with someone who works in FDN as well and is so passionate that not only do you have your own practice, but you help out here. It’s even cooler hearing these things. It’s like years ago, we did this and who would have thought that these little talks that we heard at one point now end up to we’re on a podcast together. You’re leading this whole team.

I mean, we’re actually really helping the same community that helped us so much. It’s really full circle. It’s kind of an amazing experience. You had said something, and you listen to many of these podcasts, so, you know we’ll probably go here at one point. You said that you just knew that there had to be something out there.

Jo and I, you gotta remember we’re colleagues, but it’s not an office setting, guys. We all work virtually. You’re not sitting around, hanging out at the microwave for five hours talking about your lives always. A lot of it’s very fun, but you know what I mean? Like it’s work focused. We’re on our meetings and we do what we need to do. So, you don’t always get to hear the things that people have experienced or what they’ve been through. We all kind of know it must have happened to get to FDN, this is not an accident that you end up here. But you don’t know what that is necessarily.

So, you had said again that you kind of knew there had to be something out there.

Having a Brilliant, Open-minded Granny

I’m going to guess based on what I heard yesterday when we were prepping that perhaps grandma was a little bit of the influence for that kind of mindset, knowing that there had to be something out there. I think everyone that listens is gonna love that story. Tell us about her and what she kind of did.

[00:11:55] Jo Pate: Okay. So, my grandmother, incredibly intelligent woman, I mean, very intelligent. Like valedictorian of her high school, valedictorian of nursing school. Obviously, she was a brilliant woman, right?

In the 1970s, or prior to that, she admitted the first patient into what is now, a huge hospital in the Kansas City area. She admitted the first patient, she was the head surgical nurse. In the 1970s, she was like, I’m not so happy with the direction that modern Western medicine is heading. Just, I’m not feeling it.

In the 1970s, way before it was cool, way before it was the thing to do and when it was really woo-woo, she got into herbs. When I’m telling you she got into herbs, she like dove deep into it, learned all about them, knew how they needed to work and what worked together. She was so good at like, I walked into her house one day. I had felt miserable, and she knew it.

She was like, you have a thyroid issue. I literally said, I just left the doctor. They said there’s nothing wrong with my thyroid. I call her Granny, there’s nothing wrong with my thyroid Granny. She was like, there’s something wrong with your thyroid. You’ve got this, this, this, and this you’re presenting all these.

Knowing There Had to be Other Ways

I mean, she was a nurse, so she knew. She was like, you need this herb, this herb, this herb. She was so good at all of that. But also, the fact that she was a nurse, and we knew that she had that medicine side to her, we all kind of was like, okay, Granny, okay. Yeah. Maybe she was just a little off in that area that maybe she wasn’t right about all those things.

The further I got along as I had children and as all this stuff started happening to me, I was just like, oh my goodness, she was so right. She was so right about so many things. Actually, her very first, I didn’t tell you this yesterday, but her very first book of natural healing, I have it. It was given to me when she passed away at the age of 94.

I was telling Evan yesterday that her life was like healthy. She didn’t go to the doctor. She didn’t need to go to the doctor. It was literally like the day before she passed, she was in bed. It was just, it was time, right? It was not some long-drawn-out terrible process.

She was so good at all those things, but she was always encouraging without saying, you have to do this. So, as I started going through my process, she would just kind of lift me up, boost me, and encourage me that there were other ways. Which I believe was one of the reasons why I just knew there had to be another way. She had found other ways.

Having an Anaphylactic Reaction to Lotion

I knew she was right, but it took a long time for that light bulb to go off. In fact, the day that it really went off for me was, I had put a lotion on my skin. Had no idea, like this is something I didn’t know. It was one of those things.

I’d had four kids and this lotion promised to do miraculous things. You’re a young mom and you’re like, I need all the miracles I can get with four kids. So, I put this lotion on and 24 hours later, I’m in an ER with an anaphylactic reaction, and I’m allergic to Benadryl. I’m just one of those weird people. I’m allergic to Benadryl and the ER doctor was like, we got to figure out something to give you.

He leaves the room, whatever they do, whatever they concocted, they give me. I basically lose two days of my life because I slept those two days. So, I was talking to my grandma. I hadn’t connected that it was the lotion. She’s like, what did you do different? Like, that was her first question.

I immediately went to foods. Cause there were foods I already knew I had issues with. I went to foods, and I was like, I didn’t eat anything wrong, and I couldn’t figure it out. I went to a health food store. First time I’d ever been in one. My grandma had been, you know. Some of those things were just like starting to come full circle.

Experiencing a Light Bulb Moment

I go into this health food store I’m looking around and the gal there knew I was like lost. She asked me like, what are you looking for? I said, I have no idea. So, we ended up in this lengthy conversation and I tell her what had happened to me the week before. She said, Hon, what’d you put on your skin?

I was like, what’d I put on my skin? I tried a new lotion. She said, what was in the lotion? I said, well, lotion stuff. I mean, like I was clueless. I had no idea. I went home and I looked at the label. This woman was so nice. She had a conversation with me for over an hour. I went home, I looked at the label and that label had kelp on it.

Okay. I’m fatally allergic to iodine, all iodine derivatives. Kelp is loaded with iodine. That’s when the light bulb of everything that my grandma had been telling me, everything collided right into the perfect moment. I was like, you’ve got to be kidding. What I put on my skin matters that much.

You don’t know what you don’t know. I had no idea that the skin was the largest organ, that it absorbs right into your bloodstream. I had no idea, no idea. It was such a huge light bulb moment for me that that’s when I started doing things that were more natural and getting a real understanding and listening to my grandma a whole lot more.

Having All Five Top Life Stressors

But there were just other things that happened in life, traumas, you know, that really put my body into a tailspin. In 2014, the top like life’s five top stressors, I think I had all five. Which ended in the death of my only sibling, unexpectedly. That’s when my body was just like, peace out, I’m done.

You can do all these other things, but there are certain things that you just have to handle and things happening inside your body that you need to know about. I always say this and it’s one of the things that my kids hated the worst. Cause I’d always say, you know, your body’s always talking. Your body’s always talking, it’s whether or not you’re listening.

My kids would be like, Mom. I think that’s when you know you’re being a good mom when your kids say, Mom! Your body’s always talking and it’s whether or not you’re listening, and my body was screaming. I would always say, listen, if you don’t listen when it’s talking, eventually it’s going to scream at you.

I wasn’t listening to my own. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was saying. My body was talking and when all the traumas hit, my body started screaming. It just said, literally I’m done. That’s when I couldn’t find the answers. That’s when I was like, there’s got to be so much more. And eventually that’s how I found Reed.

Planting the Seeds of Thinking Outside the Box

[00:18:43] Detective Ev: Okay.

First of all, just going back to the brilliance of grandma. I love that because I told you yesterday, I study like personality theory and psychology. I love that stuff. Believe it or not, people don’t understand this, there is not actually a huge correlation between brilliant people and thinking outside the box. It’s not really correlated all the time.

Now, you got like the Einstein’s of the world, and it happens or maybe Granny. Because to be valedictorian twice in a very conventional way, right? Like I’m going to follow these rules and follow the system that’s laid out for me. But then to have the ability to think outside the box in the 1970s, folks, where there is not someone screaming at you on a Facebook, Instagram Live, on a targeted ad every day, encouraging what you might believe already, that is both socially hard to do, because you’re going to be outcasted, especially when you’ve done very well in one certain thing.

And then two, it’s a certain way of thinking that I don’t think many people are gifted with. That’s very cool. And I’m glad that she planted those seeds for you because this, I mean, in a sense, might’ve been the difference between a life-or-death thing eventually by knowing that there had to be a reason for this, I can understand this eventually if I keep trying.

To go back to what you said with your kids, I think you’re being a good mom if you say that, I totally agree. Because there’s an odd thing that happens in us humans. There’s almost like I’ve found universally a different respect for our grandparents than our real parents initially.

Learning to Listen to Our Bodies

It’s not that we don’t love them just as much, if not more. It’s just that it’s like, all right, come on mom. But I’m never going to yell at my grandma. You know? It’s just like, okay, I’ll shut up. I think you’re planting those same seeds though, for your kids right now, which is going to be a great thing one day. Because most of us will probably need this and right when they need it, they’ll be thinking, wait, my body’s talking to me.

We both know Xiaoyun and she’s someone who had come out recently on this podcast. Definitely check out her episode, guys. She said she was so unaware of her body and working so hard that it was her mom telling her to go to the doctor that made her realize she had cancer. I have never had that, and I don’t want to be ignorant. I would have to imagine there’s a lot going on in your body on a daily basis before you get cancer of the thyroid. You probably do not feel so good.

We need to get back to this. It’s a very natural thing. It’s a very human thing, but we forgot about this with our own domestication. How to listen to our bodies, what am I actually craving today versus what does my body really need?

We have this nature given, God given thing, whatever you want to call it, that allows us to know what we need. It was kind of cool about being an FDN, Jo, and I’m sure you’ve experienced this. I know things about my body and like my family always says, you’re so aware of this now, because I’ve learned to tap back into that.

Learning From FDN to Be Healthy

I know when I’m pushing too hard. I know when I need to take a little more sleep or when I got to back off the work a little bit. Or hey, you know what, guys, I’d love to go out with you tonight, but I need that time for myself because if I push this, I’ll have a fun time tonight, but it’s not going to feel so good for the next few days.

I think that’s one of the best things we learn as FDNs. It’s not even always the labs or the supplements, it’s how to actually be healthy because we know what’s going on. So okay, cool. Well, incredible story.

The one thing I want to say just before we get into the FDNthrive stuff, which I put in the title of this podcast, so you guys are probably wondering what that is. One thing really quick is how did the FDN system itself help you once you were going through the course? Because you said this was totally life changing. What were some of the things that you found that maybe were really big for you in terms of getting your health back under control to some degree?

[00:21:58] Jo Pate: Well, one of the biggest things is going back to your body’s always talking, that’s one thing innately, because you’re right, my grandma did think outside the box. That’s why I think you know, I did too. I don’t know if it’s genetic, but you know anyway.

Building it (Living it), They Will Come

One thing about learning about the body and understanding, there were certain things that I did understand, and that was thanks to her. I did understand about my kids, thanks to her. Like I knew exactly when my son had an ear infection. I didn’t know that there were other ways to deal with it, but I knew when he had an ear infection. The doctor even said, it’s not an ear infection. I was like, yes, it is cause this is what happens when my son has an ear infection.

Eventually he got to where he told me, the doctor said, I’ve never met a mom who knows their kids’ bodies or knows their own bodies better than you. That’s when I started, I was like, well, the body’s always talking.

And as far as kids, I want every mom to know out there, I truly believe if you build it, they’ll come. I know it’s the field of dreams thing. If you live a life or a lifestyle, they may make fun of you. I’ve got three that are convinced. One, is still kind of a holdout, but I’m still working on him. The other three are girls. I’m going to say that. But if you build it, they’ll come, and it does impact even him.

So, really understanding your body, and to that extent, I thought I knew what all my food sensitivities were. Like, I just thought I knew. But when I did the MRT, I was like, holy cow, chicken? Who can have a sensitivity to chicken?

Staying Away from the Pill-For-Every-Ill Trap

I figured eggs just by the way I felt, but that came back and said, yes. Broccoli. And I was just like, what? Like broccoli was full on red. I love broccoli. Broccoli did not like me back. I was so disappointed because I had some form of broccoli in some way, shape, or form, every week, sometimes multiple times a week.

And raspberries. It was things that I was like, how is this even possible? I thought I knew all the things, the gluten, the dairy. Not too fond of beef, there’s just a natural thing. Beef came back as a sensitivity, but it was low. There were things on there that I had no idea that once I removed those, there was a lot of inflammation that was just gone. I was like, okay, that’s crazy.

It wasn’t necessarily that I needed to take a supplement. The thing that I loved about, and I do love about FDN, and you had Jennifer Woodward on your podcast. Since I also take care of social media and I was doing that thing, she’s like, I tell my clients supplements are sexy. I was like, I love this podcast already because she went into how we still have this, a pill for every ill, even sometimes as FDNs. Or if we’re not looking holistically, we can fall into that same trap because we’re inundated with that trap.

But I loved the fact that it wasn’t, hey, we’re going to do this test and you have to take this supplement and you’re going to need this supplement for the rest of your life. It was just such a holistic approach, which I loved. I tried to do, but I just didn’t know all the things.

Understanding the Control We Have

I didn’t know what was really happening inside of me. Understanding truly what was creating the inflammation in my body (because really that’s what fibroids are, it’s an inflammation), was like, I can control so much of this by what I do. I can control by what I put in my body, if I’m going to create inflammation in my body. I can control by, am I going to eat the wrong substances?

Or we don’t like to talk about bugs, but if there’s bugs. I mean, I can control so many things. Which I think in the paradigm that’s out there, modern Western medicine, which I know we both agreed that there’s times that you seriously need doctors. You don’t want me or Evan working on a broken bone or anything like that.

But it gives you such a sense of, I don’t want to call it power, but control. Understanding that there are things that you can control that can help your body do what it needs to do just felt so empowering. It was like, oh my goodness, I’m not stuck.

It’s not like there’s genes here that it’s like, there’s nothing I can do about it. This is just my life, or this is just my age. I got so tired of hearing that; well, you are getting older. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. We’re done with this conversation because that’s just not true.

It was like, you can’t tell me that, because I’m watching my 89-year-old grandma do things that if I go this direction, I’m not going to be doing when I’m 89, cause I might not be here. So it was just such an empowering experience.

Finding Answers With Lab Results

[00:27:00] Detective Ev: I love that you used the word empowering. I use that all the time on this podcast because many people get caught up. They’re like, well, don’t the labs overwhelm people, like isn’t that too much? And you know what, maybe for certain people to a certain percent of the population, ignorance is bliss. They’re not even that unhealthy. They get a headache every now and then they don’t need to know about (I mean, I would encourage them to know this stuff), but they don’t need to necessarily know everything. It might be overwhelming.

For those out there that are like us, which is the entire FDN community and all of our clients, that have been through the ringer trying to find answers and we can’t, you will never find someone so happy to find gut bugs and food sensitivities on their tests. Because for us, it’s an answer. It’s an actionable step.

It’s like, this is why I feel the way that I do even though I’m being told my labs look normal, or in your case, like the thyroid looked normal. No., there’s gotta be something else going on. We kind of know that by definition because otherwise, if I was healthy, I’d feel good and I don’t feel good, so there must be something there.

We’re able to find it with these labs. I don’t want to get too deep into this, but it’s always worth mentioning just in case someone’s first time listening or differentiation between Western medicine and what we do. Guys, there are so many doctors involved with FDN like there are many people here that are from the Western side that mix this in.

Mixing it Up Backwards

No one here is against Western. It’s really just against how we use it. We’ve turned Western into this frontline, first thing that we should be using. Well, no. Western medicine should have been a last resort. We should be as healthy as possible. We should be teaching people to eat well and be intuitive with their bodies.

Then if all else fails. Because yes, even functional medicine, people do die eventually. Maybe it’s at 94, but eventually we do pass away, unfortunately. It should be the last thing to keep our quality of life up when we are coming to the end or maybe just there is nothing left to do when we have to use some type of medication, that’s all good.

We’ve just mixed it up backwards. We give people all these medications and surgeries first, and then they finally change the diet 10 years down the road. It’s just backwards. There’s nothing wrong with either system, it’s just backwards. Speaking of which, because so many people go through the ringer and have these incredible experiences that lead them into functional medicine, it is one of those things that creates a huge person for this work.

That’s going to segue us into this next section. I’m going to preface what we’re going to talk about, but I’d love to hear it more from you. This is way more your side than it is mine.

Facing Your Fears While You Build Your Biz

What I want to preference though, is we’re going to talk about the business side of things at FDN, guys. Because the way I word it for people is this.

You get a bunch of wonderful people that come into the functional medicine space that have been through stuff, their family’s been through stuff, and their heart’s in the right place because of this. Then they get into this work and are there jobs available? Actually, there are. They’re really increasingly so, especially in the world of FDN.

There are doctors that have come on this podcast, Dr. Kyrin Dunstan. The only type of practitioner she will hire (and she is an OB/GYN), she will only hire FDNs. There’s something to be said about that. But at the end of the day, many of us, I think actually do have aspirations and dreams to be able to control our own schedule and to work for ourselves.

I don’t know why many people wouldn’t choose that if they had the option. But what happens, Jo, for many individuals, and this is not applying to you cause you were entrepreneurial and we’ll talk about that. But for so many people, they’re scared to go pursue their own thing. They see that there’s more risk involved, even though there’s always risk involved in anything.

But they perceive it as more risk involved. Again, their heart was in the right place, but that does not mean that they’ve ever sold anything in their life or that they’ve marketed anything. It can really be a lot for those people.

Pursuing the Business Side of FDN to Build Your Biz

What FDN realized over time is, you know what, if all of these people, for the most part have the same kind of issue where they could use some help with the business side, what if we created things and programs that these people can go through FDN and then, optionally (not even have to do it), optionally, you can pursue this higher stuff with the business side if you feel like that’s something that is for you.

Now, because of this, we’re bread crumbing this today more or less for you guys, something called the FDN Business School, which, if you started the course today, by the time you graduated, this would be totally available to you.

But then there’s also something called FDNthrive, which is our preceptorship program, which Jo is the one taking care of pretty much all of the main things involved with that. I just wanted to preface it that way. I’d love for you to kind of introduce this to the audience and define these two things. Like what is the difference between the business school versus the preceptorship? Who should do what? Let’s just break that down.

Commercial Break – Exclusive Behind the Scenes Access

Hey guys, it is Detective Ev popping in here really quick. If you are listening to this episode, considering the FDN course, then please do not skip through this. You need to hear this cause there’s going to be some big changes coming up really quick.

The big change is that there is a $1,000 price increase to the course on July 1st, 2022. That is July 1st, 2020, $1,000 increase to match the additional course content and labs that we are now including that have come over the last two years. FDN has done this historically, but they always add the things first and see how it works before increasing the price. It’s a pretty fair system.

Now, if you’ve been on the fence about the course, or maybe you’re hearing this as one of your first episodes or first interactions with FDN and you’re like, my gosh, I got to decide in a month if this is for me, because it’s a big investment both in time, commitment, and money. It’s great for the people who are going to go use this, but we need to make sure that you’re the person who this is actually for.

Month of June Events

That’s why in the entire month of June, we have a bunch of events going on, stuff that they’ve never even done publicly before. I’m going to list a few off here.

One is that we’re going to show you the trainee study hours. You’re actually going to be able to look into the trainee study hour, which is something that, as it sounds, is usually only available to people training in the course. You’re going to get to see what the interaction is like. These are twice a week calls that FDN does in our Facebook group for people who are actively going through the course.

One of the calls is with a wonderful mentor. She’s been on the show before, around episode 50, her name’s Elizabeth Gains. Then the other one is with the founder himself, Reed Davis. You’ll get to see that.

If you’re a real nerd like myself, you can go on and check out our Detective Hour, which is something only available to graduates in our professional group. That is where we get very technical, we take on tough cases. Really cool to check that out.

There’s a few webinars going on. I will be doing one of them on June 18th. I’ll be talking about mental health and functional medicine.

There’s also an open house at the very end of the month, June 28th. What that will be is Reed Davis, founder of FDN hopping on live for people. You can ask him your questions about the course, or maybe ask him questions about things that you’ve seen over the last month.

Oh, there’s also a full course tour in there.

Helping You Make an Important Decision

So, if this sounds like a lot and you’re like, Ev, you just listed off 10,000 things, you don’t have to memorize all of them. What you want to do is go to fdntraining.com/summer that’s fdntraining.com/summer and you can get all the info about that. You can sign up if you want to get the notifications. It’s fdntraining.com/summer. But go do that, go check that out and see if these events help you make a decision or not.

There’s also some other resources that I’m going to shout out at the end of the episode, so stick around for that, if you want to hear those.

But for now, I don’t want to take up any more of your time. Let’s get back to the episode.

Filling the Gap to Help You Build Your Biz

[00:33:52] Jo Pate: This is awesome. This was one thing that I really love about Reed himself and about FDN because he saw the gap.

There are wonderful business coaches out there and just like we don’t want to knock doctors, we don’t want to knock business coaches. There are fantastic business coaches out there. But FDN is wanting to be able to offer an opportunity for somebody to come through and not only learn FDN and all the principles of FDN, but how do you grow a business as an FDN?

You’re going to have FDNs that have grown businesses help you through that process. So, Jennifer Woodward is in charge of Business School. You recently had her on and I think you’re going to have her on again, correct? Business school is going to be launching, I would say by end of summer. I can’t say exactly, but I know it’s really soon. It’s all built. It’s all ready to go. It’s super exciting because that is one thing that a lot of coaches ask for.

It’s like, okay, I’m here, I have my certificate. Like you said, it’s like, so now what do I do? Unless you’ve done entrepreneurship, again, you don’t know what you don’t know. Just like in the health space, in the beginning, you don’t know what you don’t know with regards to health. You don’t know what you don’t know with regards to business.

It’s interesting because FDNthrive has already been up and running for over a year. Like you said, it is a preceptorship. But the way that I think FDN is going to work this is you get your certification and then you can move into Business School and then you can ascend into FDNthrive.

Going Through the Preceptorship to Build Your Biz

Business School is going to lay a really good foundation of all the things that you really need to know. Like how do you figure out what your signature program is going to be? How do you work in Canva? How do you make a freebie? Some of those things I know are involved. There’s other things that are involved with that in building that foundation.

FDNthrive, what it does is it actually allows the graduates to do some more one-on-one. We do like group coaching every week. That group coaching is, I call it giving assignments because my background is, I have a degree in education. We haven’t touched on that, but I’ve a degree in education in marketing and entrepreneurship, no less.

I owned and operated a business for over 20 years and helped build it from nothing to a very prosperous business. It’s still in business today, but I sold my half. So, I have over 20 years of entrepreneurship. And while I was doing that and raising four kids (I don’t recommend this, it’s part of the reason why I got into the mess that I was in health wise because of stress), I was also running a training department for a corporation and building a training department.

Don’t do all those things at one time, friends. Choose one path and go down that path.

But this actually allows you to have a group coaching call, which is more one-on-one coaching because FDNthrive is more small group. It allows some one-on-one coaching and teacher’s side of me says, I give assignments. So, I give homework, but that homework is actually deep diving into building your own business. That’s what you’re working on as we’re going through the preceptorship.

Getting Hands-on Experience While You Build Your Biz

Not only that, you have an opportunity to work with a real client. You get some clinical experience, you get up to five conversations with a clinical advisor on your client, something that is more difficult to do as when you’re out there doing your own thing. You get a whole lot of hands-on learning experience, building your business, and working with the client at the same time.

I love the fact that Reed, like you said, there was conversations about it. It was like, how do we do this? And Reed was like, listen, we want FDNs to know how to do business. Not just that you get through and you’re like, okay, I know how to heal myself. But I want to say that part of his, quote, “his goal”, is to help heal the world.

The way you do that is to help FDNs build a business so they can go out and help other people. That’s what we want to do with the FDN Business School and FDNthrive. Like I said, it’s another one of those areas where you don’t know what you don’t know. We’ve found with the individuals coming in that they’re just like, I got to what? I got to do what? Because there’s all these things, right?

You are you’re bookkeeper. You are your marketer. You are creating your social media content. You are trying to be the salesperson as well as working with clients. Once you lay a really good foundation, that whole process gets a whole lot easier. But if you go at it like, I’m just gonna run like a bull in a China cabinet, it can be a very difficult process to walk through. You hit a lot of potholes, and you hit a lot of guardrails.

Taking That First Step as You Build Your Biz

This way you have somebody who’s helping guide you through that process. I was on a call and Vicki is my right hand. She’s another, FDN, another person we want to get on this podcast. She is my right hand in FDNthrive and we were on a call with one of our coaches. She said, you know, Jo, I knew how to do these things. I knew what I was doing. I really kind of knew how to build a business, but this has given me the confidence and just reinforcing everything that I thought I knew. And she’s doing phenomenal.

Her social media is growing. We had a real deep one-on-one conversation about her avatar, and she had an individual she had in mind with the name and everything that was her avatar. Literally one week later, her avatar, her real avatar became her first client. That’s just an amazing success story. But we also have coaches that have like put their sign on the door.

We’ve got a coach now that has an office in a chiropractor’s office. Something she wouldn’t have done had she not like started to develop the confidence. She goes out and gives talks. We have other ones that were just so afraid to try to get that first client because they just didn’t know what they didn’t know. They didn’t know what they were going to do.

Every single one of our coaches has had their own client come through the door. That is a huge win because sometimes it can feel like when you’re just starting a business that you don’t even know where to go, what to do, or the first step to take.

Seeing Clearly While You Build Your Biz

We try to take, and I know that’s what they’re going to do with Business School, take some of that overwhelm out of the equation. When you take that overwhelm out of the equation, you start to see more clearly what path you need to take. This is going to allow any FDN that graduates a way to work up through the process to where they actually get some clinical experience, as well as building their own.

And anything that they need to deep dive in, they get some one-on-one coaching. Not always available in a lot of other coaching programs. I’m pretty stoked about it!

[00:41:08] Detective Ev: Listen, neither of us know everything in the world, but we’re both pretty involved in this space. I don’t know of another program that does it in this way, which is amazing. I think what you just said too, at the end about the clinical experience, that does matter.

Most of these people, if you ask them one-on-one, the ones especially that are understandably very intimidated by the entrepreneurship side and going out and doing their own thing. If I asked them if they felt competent in their health knowledge, most would say yes. If I said, have you been able to help yourself quite well? Well, oh my God, yeah.

There is something about this disconnect, limiting belief where all of a sudden, even though they did these practicals too, because an FDN, man, the course trains you. You are literally doing mock client things with your mentor. We’re not letting people just graduate willy-nilly. You’re going to have to prove it here, that’s how it works. That’s why FDNs are held to a certain standard and hired by certain doctors. It’s cool because the program itself is great.

Getting the Confidence Needed to Build Your Biz

But I do understand how some people need to go see, alright, I wanted to do this with a real person that was not connected to me. It wasn’t my brother or my mother or whatever. FDNthrive, in addition to all this business training, is allowing you to do that as well. We’re bringing the people in, and you will work with a real individual who has real health issues. They have real stressors in their life. They’re late on their bills sometimes, or whatever it might be. That’s an actual human with all the things that come with that.

So, you’re actually getting to see, wow, the program that I learned, and I’m certified in actually helps these people for this. They pay a fair amount to do this, I could go do that myself. That helps, I think, the belief as well. Again, just getting all the business things nailed down.

You always gotta be respectful to people’s privacy, I’m not gonna mention names. There are some people making very significant money in the world of FDN. There’s always going to be those people at the top, like 3%, that do unbelievable things. You wouldn’t even probably believe me if I did tell you, so it doesn’t matter. But the other 97% here, thank God are not people making $10,000 a year.

There are people in that 90 plus percent that have real careers, they have either added substantial supplemental income to what they’re already doing, or they’ve been able to replace their job completely. Now this is something that they’re able to do full-time from anywhere in the world virtually.

Controlling Your Schedule as You Build Your Biz

You know, you mentioned that Reed wants to really help people with this and it’s obvious. He’s very, very big on entrepreneurship. I think one of the beautiful things that comes with that is, guys, yes. If you can go work a great job, do it. There’s some wonderful opportunities that come up for FDNs and why not? If that’s what you feels right for you, that’s okay.

But at the same time, most of us, like Jo, like myself, we got sick because there was just too much. You had a lot of projects going on in your life. You’re raising a family. That’s a lot. When you engage in entrepreneurship and you figure out the formula, and I would say, at least with FDN, we have the formula.

I’m not saying we have the formula to open up a huge restaurant. That’s not what we’re teaching. Although the fundamentals could be transferred. We know very well how to do this for the FDN system. It’s been going on for decades at this point, technically, through Reed and other people.

But you have the ability then to control your schedule, to work when you need to work, to take that time off when you need time off. There is no better way to control your health outcomes as overly busy people that took on too much, than entrepreneurship. It is going to be tricky in the beginning. You might have to put in some more time, but that’s the investment. You put in the time in the beginning so then you can choose later on.

Taking Care of You as You Build Your Biz

We’ve had Jenn Malecha on before, and she’s talked about this. Jenn refuses to work more than 40, 50 hours a week because she knows for her, that got her very sick. This is the queen of efficiency and optimization. She knows how to get all this done in the 40-hour week. She takes these wonderful vacations. Guess what? She’s helped hundreds, if not thousands, I don’t know, of people at this point. You can do great work, you can help people, they pay with a smile on their face, and you can still have a life in your health.

That’s what we’re basically teaching at the FDNthrive thing. I know that you got to mention some of your background. I don’t know if there was anything else you wanted to touch on. I wanted to make sure I asked you explicitly, like you have been training people for a very long time before the world of FDN and that’s why they have you in this program. Right?

Loving the Training Aspect

[00:45:09] Jo Pate: Right. Actually, when I was talking to Brandy, she had asked when she interviewed me, she asked about my experience. I was like, well, you know, I have a degree in education, marketing, and entrepreneurship. I taught high school students for a while about how to do marketing and entrepreneurship. I love the marketing aspect.

Then I went into corporate training. I got out of education, and I went into corporate training. I kept thinking, I kept pulling my weight. It’s so funny because it’s one of those things where I went into a whole nother field, into mortgage business and I became a loan officer, sales aspect.

As a loan officer, you’re still kind of doing your own thing and you’re still kind of running a business because it’s your own private business. Then I went to another company, and they wanted to start a training department. They were like, well, do you realize that you have somebody that knows how to.

The other business that I was in, the other one, I was a loan officer, I kept helping other people. Finally, they were like, how would you like to be a trainer? I was like, okay, so I did that. Then when I went to this other mortgage company, I was just doing my thing. Got my own little desk, doing my thing. They decided they wanted to start a training department. An individual that was there, who happened to be my boss, told the CEO, said, don’t you realize you have somebody that has done that before.

Lo and behold here I am him back in that training aspect. I really do just love doing the training.

Helping Your Build Your Biz from Experience

When I was doing that training, I would train all day and then come home. When you got four kids, you got a lot going on. Three of them were in sports because the youngest, I said, you have to wait till the oldest graduates before you can do anything. I can’t do one more kid in sports.

Then I would come home after that and work on the business, the marketing, the books, and all the things. It’s just not advisable to do that kind of lifestyle. It can get you in a hot mess and I became one. But all of that said, that’s what brought me to where I am today with FDN where I can have the conversations about business and the reality of business and some of the potholes that you may find yourself in.

Some of that, out of the box thinking, I love the out of the box thinking. Some of the out of the box thinking about the way you can do a program or what you can add to it, those types of things, all of that combined together, plus being an FDN, I think really helps with running that FDNthrive program and helping coaches work through their processes in the FDNthrive program. I love that.

I know Jennifer Woodward, she has her own thriving business, as well as working with FDN, helping FDNs, and creating Business School. You have two people that have a background in business, as well as being FDNs that can help train people how to run their own successful business.

Like I said, the foresight of Reed and all of his staff to be able to create something and offer something, like you said, you can’t get any place else, I think is top notch.

Seeing the Need for FDNthrive to Help You Build Your Biz

[00:48:26] Detective Ev: It’s so cool. It’s been a long time coming, and really, I cannot express enough as someone who’s, not involved in it in a sense, but I’m still in the company, of course, so I get to see what’s happening, just the fine tuning of this and the time that’s been put into both of these things.

We had something at one point called the Fantastic Friday Call. It went on for many, many years, and now they do something else at that time. I called in like three, four years ago and I said, have you guys ever thought about doing some type of, I called it like an internship thing at the time. And they said to me, you won’t believe how many times this idea’s come up throughout the years where we tried to do something like that or whatever.

So, it’s not like it was a unique idea. People had kept asking for it, can we do this in some way? And yeah, Reed saw that and was like, all right, well, let’s figure this out, but let’s do it right. Let’s make sure all the aspects are there for people that need it.

Just to be clear for those that are listening, it’d be a little bit of a journey before you’re involved with something like this. So, when you’re getting into the FDNthrive program, Jo, like, what is the process? Let’s say I’m actually someone that’s not even in the FDN course yet, what would I have to do to get there if I feel like, you know what, I think I do want to do this, and I’d love to be a part of FDNthrive eventually?

Getting Your FDN Certification First to Help You Build Your Biz

[00:49:34] Jo Pate: Okay. So really the way that the process is going to happen is first you’re going to get certified. Right? You can’t do anything without that certification. As you said, it’s going to open up so many doors for you to be able to do your own thing. When you were saying that I was like, yes.

We also have FDNs that are hiring other FDNs to work with them because their business is successful. Which is good and bad because it’s not great that we have that many unhealthy people out there, but it’s great that we can help that many unhealthy people that are out there.

So, you get your certification and then as of right now, FDNthrive is your next step. But what’s going to be happening very soon is you get into FDN Business School. It’s an ascension program. Couple of things, one thing in particular that is key with FDN Business School and FDNthrive is you have to be a member of AFDNP. You have to be a member of the professional organization, which to me, that’s a no brainer anyway. There’s so much information that you get being a member of AFDNP.

That alone, if you had nothing else (and for the longest time, that’s what was offered), that’s a gold mine. You actually have a comradery. One thing you learn being an entrepreneur, especially in the way the world is today, is that you don’t always have that connection, right? There is no water cooler. You said it earlier. There’s no water cooler where you’re standing and chit chatting for five minutes. So that connection is imperative.

Finding a Business Buddy to Help Your Build Your Biz

With FDNthrive, one of the things that I always stress is them finding a business buddy. You need to find a business buddy or somebody that you can bounce ideas off of. You will find that you have that business buddy, forever. It turns out to be a forever thing. I’m sure you have a couple of one or two yourself. I know I have some that I wouldn’t trade for anything because I’m able to bounce business ideas off of them.

You get a lot of that with AFDNP. So, you have to be a member of AFDNP and then you can go through Business School, learn to lay that foundation. Then what’s going to happen is you actually go through an interview process with me. I think that whoever wants to go through Business School is going to be, as long as you’re an AFDNP member, you can go through business school.

FDNthrive, there’s an actual interview process, because we want to make sure that you have ducks in a row. We want to make sure that this is something that’s going to be both beneficial to you, to the clients, the potential clients that you’re going to have. It’s got to work both ways. We have an interview process, and then once you’re interviewed and you’re accepted, you’re brought on and we immediately start some real deep dive one-on-one training and conversations about how to really dive in and take that foundation and really grow your business.

That’s really kind of the way the process is going to work. So, it’s going to be an ascension process that eventually takes you to FDNthrive.

Lacking Excuses as You Build Your Biz with FDN

[00:52:42] Detective Ev: Right. And you’ve learned so much along the way.

I mean, it’s like a good thing in a sense. You might get into AFDNP and be like, well, you know what? This actually had enough business training that I feel like I can kind of create something here. Okay, cool. But then we have the Business School for you. That still wasn’t enough? Fine. I mean, to me, in the most respectful way possible to anyone out there, this is a no excuses type of program now.

I mean, there is everything here, even if you have never done anything, you’ve never even had a lemonade stand as a kid. We can help you with the entrepreneurial side of things to actually get this figured out. You know what I mean? It’s like, at some point you got to just go put in the work.

It’s just like, FDN, FDN the course, I wouldn’t consider that particularly easy. I mean, it’s a pretty rigorous program, but it’s pretty hard to deny that once you graduate, you don’t have the tools necessary to help the vast majority of people with their health issues. Like you said, it is unfortunate that there’s so many sick people out there.

Guys, there is no competition. I don’t care how many functional medicine doctors you see or how many other FDNs you see. There’s several thousand FDNs right now, between three and four, if all of them worked with a thousand people in their lifetime, that’s about three to 4 million people. Well, there’s like 330 million in America and we’re in 50 countries around the world. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of this.

Offering It as an Option to Help Build Your Biz

We actually get to the point where FDNs are legitimately competing with each other, that’s actually a good thing. We are decades away from something like that. So, pray for that, but I don’t think it’s there yet.

We can go do the work while we can, and we have everything you need in place. It’s just as much business here as it is health. The good news is we’re not forcing anyone into it, cause you could easily charge someone for both of those things. The business is optional. That’s something that you can choose if you want to do it.

I really like how FDN did that because I know at one point there was a consideration, do we just put this in the course? But then it’s like, hey, not everyone needs that. We do have people like you sometimes coming through the FDN course. It’s like, okay, I can learn something always, but I know what I’m doing with business. I’ve been doing this thing. So why are you going to pay for all that extra business stuff?

This is something that no one’s getting ripped off. You come in, you use exactly what you need and it’s for everyone. That’s, what’s really amazing.

Now I know that we’re actually coming up on our time, but it’s not like it’s a strict rule. I have a couple more questions really quick.

Taking Imperfect Action to Build Your Biz

One is, Jo, I mean FDNthrive has been around for a while now. I know there’s been some tremendous success stories and we talked about some isolated little examples at one point during the show.

But is there any one in particular that really sticks out where maybe they just didn’t have (you don’t have to mention the name per se), but maybe they didn’t have a ton of confidence coming in, or they were really confused and overwhelmed about the entrepreneurship thing. Then they turned this around and maybe got a couple of clients or got their business started. Anyone that comes to mind?

[00:55:18] Jo Pate: Oh yes, yes. It’s actually one of our beta coaches. I just love her cause we’ve had some great conversations when she’s like, hey, I just want to kind of run this by you, with some really great conversations about what she could do with her business.

Because the one thing that I didn’t touch on, I don’t think, that you kind of alluded to just now, is the confidence factor. I think that’s one thing that is huge for people that come into FDNthrive, where they leave with a confidence that they just didn’t have. Because I really kind of push.

I even tell them that in an interview, I kind of push nicely to take imperfect action. I say it a lot. Listen, take imperfect action. Take imperfect action. You can always pivot. I’m always like Ross in the hallway with the couch and the pivot scene, that you will be doing that a lot in your business. PIVOT!

Getting the Confidence Needed to Build Your Biz

I think a lot of times people think that I’m just going to go in and I’m going to do it and it’s going to be right and I never have to make any changes. Whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s like, hold up sis. You can be making a whole lot of changes in the first six months of your business.

This particular coach that I’m talking about in the beginning, just wasn’t sure what to do. She does have another career that meld so perfectly with this. So, we started having conversations and conversations. To me, she had everything except all the confidence in the world. Which doing what she does as a career, you would think, you would automatically look at her, have a conversation with her and think, oh my gosh, she’s one of the most confident people I’ve ever met. But the confidence to do something new and how do I do that? And how do I meld this all together was just, wasn’t quite there yet.

Now she has melded things together. Because one of the first things I ask when we have our meeting in the week is I want to hear your wins. Even the smallest thing is a win. I think we forget to celebrate those. Well, the days that she was like, I had my first client, it was like a huge celebration. That was what she needed.

In fact, an FDNthrive client, cause she’s going to be working more with younger individuals, wants her to work with his little. It’s just opened some doors for her in the area that she wanted to work in.

Expecting Reasonable Results with the FDN System

So, her confidence is thriving. What she wanted to do all along is now happening. It was just making some tweaks, doing some pivoting. Now it’s gaining momentum. Once you start gaining that momentum, the confidence just really starts coming.

It’s not an overconfidence. It’s not a, whoa, look what I can do. It’s just a confidence of, hey, I know that I can help you in this way and still help myself by earning a living or supplementing my income. It’s that type of confidence and that’s what we want to grow.

[00:58:33] Detective Ev: Yeah. And it’s appropriate. Guys, I think just for those out there that maybe are lacking that even when they graduate, I think it’s perfectly appropriate to have some level of like, okay, like, is this actually going to work all the time? That’s healthy questioning, just don’t let that paralyze you. That’s what we’re here basically helping with is we don’t want that paralyzing lack of confidence.

So, you get to work with maybe one or two people during your time at FDNthrive and then you get a client or two because of your family member. Once you see, wow, this didn’t just help my health, this is consistently helping other people’s health, that’s confidence. That’s what it is.

It’s a confidence that this system is predictable, it works in a predictable way, and I should be able to get compensated for that because I can, not guaranteed, but reasonably expect, certain results every single time, if this person does these set of actions.

Getting to Help People as You Build Your Biz

That’s a great way to live. You get to help people; you get to earn money doing it. They are happy to spend the money with you because unfortunately, most of the time we’re the first practitioner that’s actually really been able to make a dent in this stuff. Not unfortunate for us, but you know, no one wants to have someone go through this with 10 different doctors or 15 different diagnoses, man. It’s sad. I’m glad that we get to do that.

I’ll kind of wrap up here. One thing I want to mention before we get to the signature question on the podcast is Jo, I mean, you’re someone who’s in practice yourself, and I know that we didn’t talk as in-depth as your health story that we normally do on the show. Still, maybe there’s someone that’s resonating with you and maybe they have a similar background to you. Where can people find you? And like, who do you primarily serve? What’s your niche, if you consider yourself to have one?

Jo’s Niche & Where to Find Jo

[01:00:03] Jo Pate: I do. It is women over the age of 45, typically in the perimenopause to menopause stage, because that’s the time where you get to be told, it’s just your age. I hate that statement. I know “hate” is a strong word, but it’s just a statement that I’m just like, no, that’s not a thing.

I am on social at Jo H. Pate and I’m at jopate.com on the web. Thank you for that, Evan.

I know we’re running out of time. One thing I really wanted to touch on about going through FDN and FDNthrive and the Business School is gaining the confidence just to charge the money, right? You said it in the very beginning, we all have big hearts, and we want to help other people.

I have seen that that’s a huge struggle for people going through FDNthrive thinking (it’s not a confidence just in themselves, that’s there), but it’s the confidence that I really can’t charge people for this. I feel guilty for making money off of somebody else that needs help. Where we also talk a lot about the fact that this is your business, you have to look at it as your business. It may be your entire livelihood, it may just be supplemental income, but it is your business.

So, trying to get people to meld the fact that what you’re doing to help other people is still a business. In order for you to be able to help people, you have to make money.

Making Money to Help More People

Honestly, the more money you make, the more you can help other people. You may be able to get into a position that you can, like my ultimate goal. I’m just going to tell you this real quick. My ultimate goal is to be able to say, one woman a year that maybe has kids, single mom, whatever, that I can help her completely, for an entire year, at no cost. That is my ultimate goal, that I can get in that position financially, that I can help one to two women a year and I don’t charge them a thing. They would never get that help otherwise.

You can only do that if you have a thriving, successful practice. So, having a thriving, successful practice isn’t a bad thing inherently. I think sometimes when we go through FDN or we get to a position like we’ve helped ourselves and we really want to help everybody else, we think we have to do it and not have it as a business. But eventually you wouldn’t be able to help anybody if you’re not making money in your business.

Does that make sense?

Accepting Payment to Build Your Biz is Necessary

[01:02:40] Detective Ev: It’s a classic limiting belief in many forms of entrepreneurship. It gets even more prevalent when we start getting into something very emotional. This isn’t selling someone a pair of sneakers that I made. Most likely that person just needs a new pair of shoes. When you’re working in this, yes, you are talking to someone on the other end of that line that very often is suffering, unfortunately. They’ve been through a lot, and they might’ve given up a lot of their resources.

To be private about it, there’s certain members of my family (not me), that spent over a hundred thousand dollars trying to get their health issues resolved. You got to realize, it’s a classic statement or a cliche statement, but it’s true for this. You cannot pour from a glass that is empty. You’re not going to be able to work with a bunch of people if you do every single one for free.

I think that aspiration, that’s so cool. I didn’t know you had that goal. That’s an amazing thing to do. You can donate the extra money if you really want to. Then in your new business, you’ll learn how to make that a tax write-off. That’s really cool. But you gotta take in income for the things that you’re doing.

I told people on this podcast before, I speak in schools. I cannot just go speak for free. That actually affects me going into other schools. I would never be able to go to the schools in the inner city that can’t pay anything unless I actually took something from those that can and are very happy to do so. You’re not stealing the money from the people.

Asking Yourself What You Would Have Paid to Get Better

Why don’t you ask yourself, when your health was where your health was before FDN and then you went through the program and where it was at after that. Then why didn’t you ask yourself what you would have paid to know that this was going to work and that, that actually gets you better?

Cause I had severe cystic acne. I had these mental health things. You had a bunch of stuff going on. I am not kidding. I would have paid $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 to not feel the way that I did anymore. I just needed to know that you could do that. That’s really what it is. I don’t mind paying the money for it because it changed my entire life, but I need to know that you can do that.

That’s really huge. I think the ultimate proof of this too, the last thing I’ll say for that for the FDNthrive is when you’re working with those people at FDNthrive, they paid FDNthrive to be there, and they paid them a fair amount. So, you will know by definition, after you’re done with that client, that you are worth that amount of money because they were happy to work with you and they paid the money for it.

I think everything about FDNthrive is so intelligently done if people are actually thinking about what it means to be working with those people. Have them happy afterwards and all that stuff, you have just proven to yourself that you can do every little thing here. All you gotta do is actually go do the work. That’s an amazing thing.

Health Detective Podcast Signature Question

I think people are gonna love the entire podcast. I know that we focused a lot on the business stuff today, but at the end of the day, I haven’t had you on yet. So, I got to ask you my signature question here.

The question I want to finish up with is, if I could give Jo a magic wand and you could get every single person in this world to do one thing for their health or not do one thing, what is the one thing Jo would get them to do?

[01:05:32] Jo Pate: What I say to everybody all the time is take imperfect action. I think people get paralyzed in, if I don’t have the right diet, if I don’t have the right foods, if I can’t afford this food, I can’t do this exercise program, I can’t get the sleep, if I can’t do everything at once, I don’t do anything at all.

I’ve met people like that. I’ve had people like that in my office, in my chair that feel like if I can’t do it all, it’s not worth doing anything. I would encourage everybody to take imperfect action. If there’s just one thing you can do today and that is walk for 20 minutes. Then you walk for 20 minutes if that’s the only thing that you can do, because it builds.

Eventually you’re going to feel better walking that 20 minutes. Then there’s something else you’re going to choose to do. Then there’s something else. Maybe, next thing you know, you’re going to bed at 10 o’clock and you’re sleeping till six. And you’re not on your phone for an hour before bed.

It just will compound, the effects compound if you start taking imperfect action.

Checking Out Other Resources

[01:06:40] Detective Ev: Okay. Phew. That was a long episode I hope you guys enjoyed this. And if you’ve listened to the end, it might be because you heard my part in the middle about other resources that you can check out.

You’ll remember that we talked about the Summer Open House that’s going on, a bunch of events in June to really help people decide if the FDN course is right for them since we are doing a thousand-dollar price increase on July 1st, 2022. Other resources that you have are things that I’ve mentioned before.

One is fdntraining.com/tryfdn and that’ll let you try the first module of FDN completely for free as a 16-module course, no credit card required, nothing like that.

The other option is maybe you’ve been listening for a while, or you already know that this is kind of a probably for you, but you’re like, hey, how can I get direct questions answered? I have like 10 minutes, 20 minutes, maybe even 30 minutes’ worth of it. How do I get those figured out? Then what you want to do in that case is go to fdntraining.com/call.

That’s fdntraining.com/tryfdn to go through the first part of the course for free. And it’s fdntraining.com/call to get hooked up with one of our course advisors.

They can answer your questions for you and help you see if this course is for you or not. The cool part about our advisors is if they don’t think the FDN course is for you, they will help guide you in the direction of something that might be more suitable. So, you’ve got nothing to lose if you’ve been on the fence about FDN. Definitely use some of these resources before that price increase on July 1st.

Conclusion

I just want to thank Jo for coming on and sharing her story. It’s actually not something I had heard at all until the day before we did this. Kind of crazy, right? We made the joke I think in the podcast, in the virtual world, I mean, we’re all friends, we’re all very close, but it’s not like you’re hanging out in an office.

There’s meetings and there’s intentions of the meetings and you kind of get right to it. Whereas, you know, I’m sure if I’m working a nine to five in an office, you’re hanging around that microwave or the water cooler or something, and you kind of learn a little bit more about people. But it was amazing to hear her story and the things that she’s been through and overcome.

I really appreciate her sharing the FDNthrive program with everyone, because that’s not something we’ve mentioned much at all before on this podcast. It’s one of my favorite things that’s ever come out in FDN. I wish they had that when I first graduated, but hey, they have it now and you can go through it.

With that said, I think that is all for today’s episode. You guys have hung in here for a while. I’m looking forward to talking to you guys again soon, but until then take care.