How to Discover if Your Diet is Helping or Harming Your Health with Jenn Malecha on The Healers Café with Manon Bolliger

In this episode of The Healers Café, Manon Bolliger (facilitator and retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice) speaks with Jenn Malecha about getting to the bottom of what’s making you feel fat, sick and tired – dig deeper and find the missing pieces so you can get back to feeling like your fantastic self!

 

Highlights from today’s episode include:

Jenn Malecha 

what I really like to say is that, you know, your body is unique, and therefore your diet will be to. And there’s a difference between eating healthy and eating right for your body, like, not every healthy food is going to be right for your body

Jenn Malecha 

the three basic types are protein type, carb type, and then a mixed type. So, what this is looking at is how do you metabolize fuel, essentially, in a protein type, for example, they metabolize carbohydrates really fast. And so, they need slow burning fuels, like protein and fat to slow down the metabolism of carbohydrates so that we get a nice steady stream of like glucose or sugar released into the blood that keeps that energy level nice and even

Jenn Malecha 

Because when we actually look at the different phases of detoxification that the body goes through, it needs amino acids, which are the protein building blocks, you know, that we have in the body and needs, like very essential amino acids. And you can’t always get a complete source of amino acids when you’re not incorporating enough meat, specifically, right? Like this is a lot of the this is a challenge that people have when they are vegan or vegetarian is making sure that they’re getting in those essential nutrients that are needed.

ABOUT JENN MALECHA:

I’m Jenn Malecha and I help career-driven, results-focused functional health practitioners who are feeling overwhelmed about getting their business going or growing, by giving them a roadmap to success so they can confidently achieve their business goals and live their dream life!

Through my  holistic Health Boss health coaching brand I support busy, health-mind professionals in taking back control of their health by giving them access to the right lab tests and resources so they can find the missing pieces of their health puzzle, actually fix what is wrong and get back to feeling like themselves again.

Using over a decade of business and project management experience, training in Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, and Transformational Coaching –  my focus is to guide functional health practitioners on setting up solutions to create multiple six-figure practices that allow them to heal hundreds of people while working less and taking better care of themselves.

Core purpose/passion: Jenn is on a mission to help health-minded people in growing their knowledge, and with getting access to the right lab tests and resources so they can find the missing pieces to their health and get back to feeling like themselves again or for the very first time.

 

–  Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube |

 

 

About Manon Bolliger

As a recently De-Registered board-certified naturopathic physician & in practice since 1992, I’ve seen an average of 150 patients per week and have helped people ranging from rural farmers in Nova Scotia to stressed out CEOs in Toronto to tri-athletes here in Vancouver.

My resolve to educate, empower and engage people to take charge of their own health is evident in my best-selling books:  ‘What Patients Don’t Say if Doctors Don’t Ask: The Mindful Patient-Doctor Relationship’ and ‘A Healer in Every Household: Simple Solutions for Stress’.  I also teach BowenFirst™ Therapy through Bowen College and hold transformational workshops to achieve these goals.

So, when I share with you that LISTENING to Your body is a game changer in the healing process, I am speaking from expertise and direct experience”.

Mission: A Healer in Every Household!

For more great information to go to her weekly blog:  http://bowencollege.com/blog

For tips on health & healing go to: https://www.drmanonbolliger.com/tips

 

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About The Healers Café:

Manon’s show is the #1 show for medical practitioners and holistic healers to have heart to heart conversations about their day to day lives.

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TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the Healers Café. Conversations on health and healing with Manon Bolliger. A retired and deregistered naturopathic physician with 30 plus years of experience. Here, you will discover engaging and informative conversations between experienced healers, covering all aspects of healing, the personal journey, the journey of the practitioner, and the amazing possibilities for our own body, and spirit.

Manon Bolliger  00:42

So welcome to the Healers Cafe. And today I have with me Jen Malecha, and she is a functional health practitioner that is helping currently, and we’ll get all the details from our discussion, but through a company that she’s created The Holistic Health Boss, which is her coaching brand. And she’s supporting health minded professionals in taking back control of their health, by giving them access to the right lab tests and resources, and whatever’s missing in their puzzle. As well as helping them create six figure practices, which is really what you need if you’re going to be true to your word and look after yourself and take time for the things that you love in your life. So, I think this is very important discussion. And like we said, just in starting, we need healthcare practitioners out there, able to make it not just a part time thing on the side but make it a full-time reality because we have a crushing medical management system that is falling apart. And we need true health. So, I’m really thrilled that you accepted to be on this call.

 

Jenn Malecha  02:06

Exciting that you’re doing this. And I love that you’re trying to get the word out to more people so that we can create change.

 

Manon Bolliger  02:12

Yes, that’s definitely the idea here. So well, I guess I’m gonna ask you the first question. Just about you a little bit personally, what got you onto this path? Or the first I mean, the whole thing, this path? And then your focus?

 

Jenn Malecha  02:31

Yeah, well, the story is very telling, because I’m sure a lot of the listeners can probably relate that, you know, they’ve had their own personal health journey, in a sense, right. And I, you know, ever since I was little, I’ve always been kind of physically active and health minded in a sense. We had a garden, and my parents were really diligent about providing like balanced meals based on what was recommended back when I was growing up. So, we always had like, a protein and a starch and vegetables on our plate, we didn’t eat a lot of junk food and things like that. So, I kind of just had this, like, natural desire and passion for fitness and health, essentially. And when I went to college and started thinking about what I wanted to do as a career, I originally thought that I wanted to be a sports psychologist, because my dad was a huge football fan. And I loved watching sports and football. And I also love just the nature of how people’s minds work and …

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the psychology of who we are as humans. And so that sent me down a path of majoring in Kinesiology. And about a couple of years in, I realized, well, I don’t really think I want to be a sports psychologist anymore, because all of the continual education that I had to do, and I started to rethink my career at that point in time. And so, I decided to shift my emphasis in my major to just fitness, nutrition, and health. And through that process, I was introduced to the concept of becoming a personal trainer, and was able to intern and realize that well, like, you know, personal training is actually a career. And so that’s what I then set out to do when I graduated college. And I moved up really quickly in the fitness industry working for really predominant corporate wellness or corporate fitness brands and companies. And as a part of that process, I got burned out really quickly from the high stress sales environment that comes along working in a corporate gym type of world and I started to also notice a decline in my own health. I was, you know, quote unquote, the healthiest person that I knew because I had all this education. I had a degree in fitness, nutrition and health, I was, you know, working out all the time as to be expected. I was doing all the things that you were told that we’re supposed to do. I was eating like chicken breast and broccoli like lean proteins and vegetables, yet I still struggled to maintain or lose weight, I had severe seasonal allergies that came on that would manifest in the ear infections and knock me out for days at a time. And then really, you know, kinda like this rock bottom moment or traumatic event was when I was diagnosed with skin cancer around the age of 24. And there was no like family health history related to cancer was really a mystery as to how I wound up in this place. And that’s what really started to make me question the status quo of what we know to be…well what we were told about health, you know, that healthy is like managing calories and exercising. And around that time is when a mentor of mine introduced me to a training program called Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. And it was like all the pieces of the puzzle came together for me when I watched the founder, Reed Davis present on this material. And just the way that he talked about the physiological aspects of the body and like, you know, how the hormone system works with the digestive system and the detox system. And I was just like, I took, you know, physiology class, and I took biology and human anatomy and all these classes in college, and nobody ever talked about the body, and the intricacies and the interplays like I heard Reed Davis talk about and so I was like, this is it. I totally invested in my health and my, the future of my career at that point in time dove into that training program. Been through that process. And the training, it’s a requirement that you do some of the functional lab testing on yourself to learn the experience and the practical application of it. And I then discovered that I had adrenal dysfunction and other hormone imbalances going on, I had really high oxidative stress, which we know correlates really strongly with things like cancer, right. I also had a very congested liver. So, my liver wasn’t able to get out like toxins and things like that. And I had all kinds of bacteria and parasites and other types of critters going on in my gut. So, when I took a step back, I was like, Oh, this is the perfect storm of things that literally cultivated cancer in my body. And so, through that, I was able to take that information and use the information from the lab test to change lifestyle things like change my diet and my sleeping patterns and take the right supplements and reduce stress in my life. And I’m sitting here with you today, like, what is it 15 years now or so cancer free, never came back. Right? And I just through that process, got really passionate about the work and realized like more people need to know, this information. It needs to be out there. And I wanted more freedom and flexibility in my personal life, I was tired of working for somebody else like under somebody else’s thumbs and micromanagement and hours. And it took me a little bit to leave the corporate space, because let’s be honest, it also at the same time provides a sense of security, right?

 

Manon Bolliger  08:03

For sure.

 

Jenn Malecha  08:05

You know, I mean, you have responsibility, but you have a company that you lean on for, like the full responsibility of running the business and everything. But the breaking point for me to really branch out and become a functional health practitioner full time was actually a couple years later, after I’d gone through that training course, I was kind of doing it. Like I was being a functional health practitioner on the side, like you just said, like taking a couple clients is like a hobby. And then my mom was terminally ill. So, I had actually transitioned into working in the corporate wellness industry at the time, I was doing the part time work as a functional health practitioner, and my mom became terminally ill. And so, I would go into the office early on Fridays and leave early Friday afternoon so that I could drive five or six hours to go see her for the weekend. And my employer actually fired me, let me go. because after a couple months of doing this, they just couldn’t understand. And my work was getting done. But they didn’t like that I was working. They had no compassion for my situation. And that’s where I was like, Okay, this is it. Like, I have to figure out how to like be an entrepreneur or like start my own business and make this work. And I made the leap and figured it all out, you know, back then I’ve been in business now for our oh gosh, probably like full time seven years, but I did that certification program 10 years ago. So, it’s been a while and you know, made a lot of mistakes, but also figured out a lot of things along the way and invested in a lot of business and marketing trainings. Along the way. I mean, back then there wasn’t really a lot of business and marketing training specifically centered around what we do is like functional health practitioners and the complexity of some of our work. So I always had to take that stuff and kind of modify it to fit my needs as the type of practitioner that I was and you know, essentially I created a very successful practice and other practitioners started coming to me and asking me, how are you doing this, what is going on, and I found myself then mentoring them, which is how I then kind of organically evolved into being also a business coach for other functional health practitioners in the space and so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel, right? Like just giving them the roadmap and say, I made all the mistakes for you. Here you go, here’s the roadmap. More quickly get people out there that are building a business that are helping more people around the world so that we can change, you know, turn things around.

 

Manon Bolliger  10:40

Yeah, and I totally, totally get the steps. And they make sense. But so let me ask you, first of all, on the content itself, like what you discovered, in your own process, because, like you said, it often is, you know, you go through it first yourself, then you realize, okay, wow, this works, I’m gonna learn that. And then you go, okay, now I got to do it, and then how, right, so I can see the trajectory perfectly. But what were the things that shocked you the most in your learning process when it came to your own healing? What were the sort of the misconceptions that you likely had? And I know health is individualized. So again, you know, that’s why I’m saying yours, because you can’t speak for everyone at the same time. But what were you shocked at?

 

Jenn Malecha  11:39

Well, I think the first thing was figuring out what foods are actually right for my body because having worked in the fitness industry, and been a personal trainer, I mean, I would do fitness competitions, I tried every diet, you know, thing out there, I did carb cycling when I was doing intense fitness, and training regimens to get ready for competitions. And I like I said, I was eating all the quote unquote healthy things like low fat, like lean proteins, vegetables. And so, part of the testing that I did to this program was one a food sensitivities test. And then the other one was, it’s called a metabolic typing test. The Metabolic Typing test really is the one that opened up my eyes because the metabolic typing test looks at like, are you more parasympathetic or sympathetic driven? And then are you a fast or slow oxidizer? So how do you in a nutshell, how do you metabolize food. And what it showed me for example, was that like dark meat chicken was better for me than white meat, chicken. And then I actually did better with proteins that were higher in purines. So, like fattier cuts of meat, that I didn’t really do really well with carbohydrates. And so, fruits weren’t really my friend necessarily, if it was gonna eat fruit, it really needed to be a little low sugar stuff. But like, when you do this assessment, it gives you like a list of ideal foods and my top like, my most ideal fruits are like coconut, avocado, and olive which are basically fat based. They’re not really carbohydrate driven, right. And the second that I made those changes, I instantly noticed, like my energy was more stable, especially in the afternoons. Because when I was working, I mean, like a lot of people have experience I was hitting that wall in the afternoon time. Like as a personal trainer, I was, I would get like a double americano from Starbucks in the afternoon after lunch to try and stay awake to train my afternoon, evening clients and I would still be struggling to keep my eyes open. And so, when I made these dietary changes, and started eating according to those ideal foods, for me, it totally shifted my energy stability. And also, I lost weight as a result, because a lot of the digestive stress went away and the bloating and a lot of the puffiness, and now my body was getting the nutrients that it actually needed. And then the food sensitivity testing helped with that a little bit too. And I think this is where I really love working with people who have like, tried the AIP diet, autoimmune paleo whole foods, they’ve tried like some of these more like what I would call advanced or evolved dietary concepts, and they’re still like kind of struggling to get results. And what I really like to say is that, you know, your body is unique, and therefore your diet will be to. And there’s a difference between eating healthy and eating right for your body, like, not every healthy food is going to be right for your body. Like we can look at a banana as an example. And that globally, we can all agree that a banana is a nutritious food. But if you have a sensitivity to bananas, or you don’t tolerate carbohydrates very well to sugars, and that banana is not necessarily right for you. Right? So that was a really big one, especially because we’re so conditioned around diet to think that like, calorie counting is the answer, and not so much about the quality. And then the next step is like these elimination diets where I like to blend the concept of elimination diet, and then also the balance of macronutrients. And when you look at something like autoimmune, paleo, or paleo or whole 30, they are elimination based, they’re not actually addressing the nutrient and the macronutrient needs, which is what the Metabolic Typing kind of helps us to do. So, putting those two concepts together and breaking free of the structures that are out there to find what’s really unique for me was just like, that’s it essentially.

 

Manon Bolliger  15:40

So, let’s stick with this one a little bit longer, because I realized that a lot of people may not know much about this Metabolic Typing. And what’s maybe more known is O blood type, you know, if your blood O, then you can have whatever, you can have some proteins if you’re type A are not supposed to. And so, I’m not in practice anymore, but when I was in practice, I was looking at that going, this isn’t quite jiving for me. There’s more, there’s gotta be more complexity than that. And I did start looking into Metabolic Typing. But so, what why don’t we talk a little bit more about that and explain sort of the different general types?

 

Jenn Malecha  16:32

Yeah, so it was developed by Bill Walcott. And you can go to mtdiet.com. That’s where Functional Diagnostic Nutrition offers is tested, if anybody wants to check it out, that highly recommend that and just learn more about it. But you know, to funnel it down into simplicity, there are three basic metabolic types. And actually, Paul Check talks about this a little bit in his book, Eat, Move and Be Healthy. And there’s a very simplified basic assessment in there for your metabolic type is another just resource here. And so, the three basic types are protein type, carb type, and then a mixed type. So, what this is looking at is how do you metabolize fuel, essentially, in a protein type, for example, they metabolize carbohydrates really fast. And so, they need slow burning fuels, like protein and fat to slow down the metabolism of carbohydrates so that we get a nice steady stream of like glucose or sugar released into the blood that keeps that energy level nice and even. It also helps somebody to stay satiated, has as well as when we’re eating more fats and proteins, they have the nutrients that that person would specifically need for their, you know, type, like what their body needs. And so, we can look at this from an ancestral standpoint as well, like, you know, a true like real protein type and a strong protein type would be like the Inuit’s, you know, the Eskimos, and they ate very minimal carbohydrates, right, they would, like kill whales and live off of blubber for the entire winter, or whatever. And so very high fat protein diets in a sense. And so, if you have, you know, ancestry or lineage from, you know, some of these northern hemisphere areas, this is the type of genetic makeup that can lead to you the foundations of being a protein type, essentially, right? Versus carbohydrate types are like the exact opposite of this. So, carbohydrate types, they metabolize carbohydrates, slow already. And so, if they have too much protein or fat, it will slow that down, it’ll make them feel sluggish, and like they have like a rock in their stomach. And we can look at these types from an ancestral standpoint of, you know, think about places closer to the equator, or like, you know, South America, for example, where a lot of their food sources set around like fruits that are very abundant within the area, lighter types of protein, there’s a lot of fish that they consume in these areas as well. So, it’s a little bit higher on the carbohydrate intake scale, a little bit lower protein and fat scale. And then specifically those proteins and fats are…it’s leaner, right? So like a, you know, white fish and that type of stuff is going to be leaner versus like even something like salmon, we find more in the northern hemisphere areas like Alaska, which is going to be a fattier type of fish, basically. And then you’ve got mixed types. So mixed types are in the middle, and they need, based on how they metabolize carbs and proteins they like are maybe at a moderate, you know, rate for that. And so, they need a nice balanced blend of protein and carbohydrates, like somewhere right in the middle. And I think it said that about 80% of the population is more of a protein type, which I find to be true in my practice. Pretty much almost every single client that I’ve worked with has leaned towards that protein side of the scale, and there’s been a few unicorns in there that are the carb, the true carbohydrate types are, that’s where they flourish. And then I’ve had, you know, the handful of people or so that are in that middle of being mixed type. And that’s where they feel their best.

 

Manon Bolliger  20:16

So, I have a question for you. When…many of the detox, you know, when people say, oh, they have to detox, whether it’s, you know, even in these complicated last two years, there’s a great need to detox. And many of the suggested diets are very kind of, you know, fruits, very clean, like very, you know, vegetables or salads, without oils without anything. And very low in animal fat, or none at all. It’s more like if you have to kind of thing. And so, I guess I’ve never sat particularly well with that. Because how can you detox if you’re inflaming your body eating a diet that that is very difficult for your body.

 

Commercial Break  21:14

Manon Bolliger here, and I want to thank you for taking actionable steps towards engaging your healing journey, and helping others discover their path by watching, sharing, subscribing, and reviewing these podcasts. Every review and share helps spread the word these different perspectives and choices and options for healing. And to thank you, I’d like to invite you to sign up to my free seven sequence email tips on health and healing for everyday life. You can go to healerscafe.com tips, thanks so much.

 

Manon Bolliger  21:56

So, I was curious what you thought, as a naturopath or when I was one…yeah, I was always the oddball anyways.

 

Jenn Malecha  22:09

The short answer to that question is that I actually have a 28-day cleanse challenge that allows you to eat as much bacon as possible, and it’s actually encouraged.

 

Manon Bolliger  22:18

Oh, my God, okay.

 

Jenn Malecha  22:19

So, there’s that. But I also am on the same page with you with this one. Because when we actually look at the different phases of detoxification that the body goes through, it needs amino acids, which are the protein building blocks, you know, that we have in the body and needs, like very essential amino acids. And you can’t always get a complete source of amino acids when you’re not incorporating enough meat, specifically, right? Like this is a lot of the this is a challenge that people have when they are vegan or vegetarian is making sure that they’re getting in those essential nutrients that are needed. And also with the different phases of detoxification, like there’s certain B vitamins that are certain that are really important. And some of the most nutritious sources of B vitamins are things like beef, right? And so, I always like to ask the question, well, what is it that you think that you need to detox? And what’s the best approach for that? Because it like, to your point is that when a Detox or Cleanse is focusing mostly, I mean, there’s like juice cleanse that are out there, or vegetables or fruits, you know, what is the benefit risk ratio of the inflammation that you are impacting on the body? And, and the possible, like dysregulation with blood sugar that’s going to affect sleep, and we’re not if we’re not sleeping, well, we’re not detoxing, well, either. So, there’s just this bigger picture to the puzzle that’s going on. And what I like to focus on is the whole-body approach of, you know, how do we get all the systems up and running? Well, just by, you know, eating the right diet, you know, for your body’s specifically making sure that you’re sleeping, well, exercising or moving your body on a daily basis, then you don’t really have a need for these cleanses or detoxing because you’re just supporting that process all the time. Right? There’s supplements and nutrients and things that you can take, or even foods that you can eat that help to boost detoxification, there’s little lifestyle things that you can be doing so that we don’t have to, like look at those solutions that actually are just kind of gimmicky and really don’t support the process, like we think that they do.

 

Manon Bolliger  24:33

Have you ever seen people that because the carnivore diet is another one that’s quite, you know, popular by many who have problems digesting vegetables, right. And even very conventional doctors will say, oh, it’s the vegetables, you know, now what comes out of their mouth I you know, given the 11 hours of nutrition I’m not too preoccupied by it. But I do wonder whether there is, or have you seen, like, limits to how much the kidney can take by a high protein diet. I mean, when you’re saying the bacon for a month, is it just because it’s a month, but or I’m thinking more like long term lifestyle diets, which are where the problems would come if it’s a one off, it’s, you know, the body is quite resilient.

 

Jenn Malecha  25:32

So, my husband basically is carnivore, and it’s like pulling teeth to get him to eat a vegetable every once in a while. But he went keto first. And this was a result of doing a Dutch test and figuring out that he was estrogen dominant and insulin resistant, and all the typical exercise and diet things weren’t working for him. And at that point in time, he was already gluten free, and basically dairy free and kind of eating anti-inflammatory. But there were these other pieces of the puzzle that we discovered. And through that keto diet, he lost weight, and then realized that you still kind of was stuck. And so, then he evolved into carnivore. And you know, he’s a, I think, a perfect example of somebody that it works really well for, and he eats a lot of meat and protein, and he doesn’t have any problem with his kidneys, right. I’ve also have had other clients where, literally, you know, their food sensitivity tests has come back, and they’re sensitive to 87 different foods, and the only things that they’re not showing sensitive for are meats. So, in those instances, I’ve put people on a carnivore diet to like stop the inflammation and get them you know, start healing the gut. And so, they can reintroduce foods. And most of the reasons why we reintroduce foods is not because the kidneys are shutting down, or it’s overloading them, but just because they’re looking for more variety. And at that point in time, they can tolerate it. And you know, there’s guys out there like Shaun Baker, who is like the godfather of the carnivore diet, and that’s all he eats, and his kidneys are fine. So, I think this is where we have to get out of the, the conventional framework of like, you know, what’s good, what’s bad, and like, really just look at, like that individual person and work with what’s right for their body.

 

Manon Bolliger  27:23

No, I totally agree. I mean, that’s definitely the stuff. I wonder how people are going to do with crickets. There’s a big push in Canada, you know, as they’re trying to get rid of farmers and meat and all that, that they have a big factory now in Ontario, it’s going to be the biggest cricket factory in the world. And in our schools, especially in the middle part of Canada, they’re starting to give crickets either barbecued flavored crickets, to children, so that they can as prizes for doing well in school. So anyway, we’ll have to look at the how the body digests that eventually.

 

Jenn Malecha  28:08

I was down in Mexico and I had a cricket taco. Yeah, very interesting. And it’s a protein source. Is it the protein source for everybody? Maybe, maybe not. Right?

 

Manon Bolliger  28:21

No, but I think it comes like I say, I had it in Mexico, I’ll try every food once you know, I had it actually was chocolate. You know, good. I’ve done that. That’s cool, you know? Yeah, anyway, but yes, it will bring a whole other…if we really can’t have diversity, we’re gonna have problems. That’s the bottom line. Right? So, we have to keep all options open to everyone. But let’s transition now into you training practice practitioners to actually make you know, six figures or more and have a life. Because we are running out of time. So, I went I want you to say, well, what was the main obstacles you saw the main issues that people were having?

 

Jenn Malecha  29:14

Well, I think the one of the main things is like I said, I invested in a lot of business and marketing trainings myself trying to figure it out for my own business. And all these marketing trainers where trainings were like geared towards other health coaches, or like life coaches, or just general industries, like entrepreneur industries. And while they were helpful, none of them were specifically tailored to the complexities of what it’s like to be a functional, holistic or integrative health practitioner, because I do think that there is a complexity to the work that we do. It’s like, one of the things that I say all the time is that I think that we work in the most vulnerable industry that exists in some kind of way because oftentimes the people that we work with, you know, they have been beat up and beat down by the conventional medical structure and approach, right? They’ve been told that you know that they’re crazy that they’re depressed that you know, to ignore their symptoms that nothing’s wrong with them. They have tried relentlessly to find solutions. They’ve spent tons of money on supplements and diets and, you know, what is…what do they say like the average number of doctors that somebody has to go to to like get a diagnosis for an autoimmune condition is like six or something like that. So, the people that we work with the clients or the patients, consumers, whatever we want to call them, they like have this level of distrust that we have to speak to. And so that is where I think my passion around like human psychology kind of same came in a little bit originally that I had. And first me getting to understand it, and know it, and work through it. And then teaching other practitioners how to tap into this and also tap into like, your uniqueness as a practitioner, because a lot of us are trained, and like, you know, similar modalities, or we have the same credentials, but there is a uniqueness to every single one of us, and really tapping into the uniqueness and the power of your story and who you are, because you were put on this earth with a purpose, I believe, and there’s something unique about you, that’s going to resonate with an individual out there, that’s having a similar experience, as you are shares the same morals and values and outlooks on life. And so there’s, you know, that’s not really talked about in the traditional approaches to marketing, like I, I say, I like to teach a non-traditional approach to figuring out your niche, for example, so most traditional approaches to niching will have you split, pick a specific condition, and then an age range and a specific gender and like, how many kids do they have, and how much is their household income, it’s all these like demographical things that actually speak nothing about the person that you’re trying to really reach. So, I like to focus more on what’s called the psychographics of like, well, who is that person innately like, my person is a busy health minded professional who’s looking for the missing pieces of their health puzzle, so they can actually fix what is wrong, and get back to feeling like themselves again. That is the experience that they’re having in life. And that was my experience when I was trying to solve my own health issues too. So, I can relate to them on a certain level. And then also, the other passion evolved to this is that, like all these other trainings, really teach, like these very timeframe specific types of programs like oh, have a 60-day program or have a 90-day program, and where what I found as a practitioner is when I got all the lab testing back, it was hard to predict how long the protocol was going to be. And so those time specific structures of programs was really limiting. And I was recommending a protocol for people that I couldn’t even follow them through because our time was up, and then I kind of felt like a jerk having to sell them again. So, I liberated myself by shifting my position on my programs and packages that I offer into a total number of sessions so that I could really need an individual where they were every step of the way, and work with them through that process. And I am not also in a time on my calendar instead of being stuck to this specific timeframe structure that was happening. And, you know, I had a desire when I started my practice to work 20 hours a week or less, because I wanted to be able to take better care of myself and be there for my family, like in times of my mom was terminally ill. So, I quickly put like business systems in place like automation and practice management in place. And to help free up my time even more and through custom creating that for my business, I realized that I created something pretty amazing that other practitioners could probably benefit from also because the manual like we’re so there’s so much that we do with our clientele like there’s all the lab testing, and there’s the intake forms, and it’s they’re following every detail and keeping track of all the stuff which can really start to bog somebody down and take up a lot of your time, which then leads you to burnout or feeling tired and not being fully present for your clients or your loved ones. And like that’s not a place to be in in this type of career. Like, I believe that as practitioners, we have a responsibility to lead by example for our clients. So, if we’re working long hours and super stressed out and burnt out all the time, that’s not the great example that we should be giving right so how can we put systems in place to support a better quality life for ourselves that actually helps us to deliver on the service that type of caliber of service that these people coming to us really deserve ultimately.

 

Manon Bolliger  35:05

Hmm, interesting. So on your second point, which is the, you call them steal packages, but they weren’t your typical, because I’ve done tons of marketing courses and trying to take the pearls out of each one to figure out how to get, you know, my practice was especially, you know, teaching it to other because when you’re, when you’re kind of the first in an area, and you get results, you get a practice. But when there’s more of you, and you know, and there’s a lot of that you really do need to have a system, we need to deal with your mindset. And yeah, and so I took lots of training to help train my students so that they would learn from my mistakes and start a little bit ahead. But the one interests me on the second one, so to be able to give a person what they need. Are you then in the end selling the transformation that you believe they can get? Or how do you…can you expand on that just a tad more, and we’re really at our time, but I’m curious.

 

Jenn Malecha  36:18

Definitely, I mean, transformation is what people invest in. Not I mean, I think this is where practitioners have to flip their mindset, like they think that people aren’t investing in the lab testing or their credentials. And that’s not what people are interested in investing in, it’s in their transformation. And so, what is the…like what you need to think about is, how do I really get somebody transformation? Okay, it’s not fee for service and selling a single appointment, you know, at a time, it is actually a process, we know that it’s a journey. So how can you package that process, so that you’re setting them up for success and you up for success and what happens all along the way. So, for example, like my largest package is called the total transformation, and includes five lab tests, and includes 18 sessions. It includes our first round of supplements, once I make those recommendations, it includes a check in email and between every single appointment, and it includes three reassessment sessions, so that every, like six sessions or so we’re reevaluating and tracking their progress using a minimum intake forms with subjective scores, or when it’s appropriate doing the lab testing again, and this package will last somebody on average anywhere from nine to 12 months. And the way that I started is in the beginning, we meet every two weeks for the first four to five sessions, and then we space it out, we meet every three weeks. And then we space about towards the end every four weeks as they get more comfortable and compliant with what it is that I’m teaching them and being able to do it on our own. But the total number of sessions gives me the flexibility to that if somebody falls off track, or if they’re having a troubling time, I have the ability to shift that cadence at any point in time. Like if we’re at a point where we’re every three or four weeks, we can go back to every two weeks to get them back on track and give them the support that they need at that moment in time, right. And oftentimes, I mean, people are getting great results through this process. And then after they do this deep work with me in a one-on-one package in this type of structure, if they want additional accountability or support, then I will roll them into like a monthly membership program is more capable on their own at that point in time. And a lot of people stay in my monthly membership program for I have people in there that have been there for six years. Because they just like the regular consistency, they want to keep up leveling their health, because once they realize that they can feel good, they’re like, well, how much better can I feel? What more can we do? Concepts and like, you know, that’s when I’ll get them into like maybe intermittent fasting or like other things once we’ve got their baseline solid, essentially.

 

Manon Bolliger  39:12

Yeah, no, that sounds that sounds very…it’s good because you’re you can really do what you want to do. But they have still a destination that’s clear. And they have the support that’s there, you know, and obviously there’s a price for that. Which I mean people will pay if they have any hope that you can get them there. And you know, in Canada here or at least as naturopaths we can put testimonials, which is such a drag because you can’t say how good and how many people you’ve helped in with you know, whatever it is condition they have we just have to hope they find out somehow. But yeah, we were on our end and it was really fun, this interview and any last word or anything else before we close?

 

Jenn Malecha  40:09

Gosh, well last words, I would just say that, you know, we’re, your personal story is the most powerful tool at your fingertips. It doesn’t cost you a thing. I mean, I’m sure a lot of people resonated with the story that I shared today. And they have their own that’s gonna resonate with people out there. So, I always say that that’s kind of the starting point, no matter what, whether you’re working on healing yourself or you’re working on healing others, it’s such an important part of success.

 

Manon Bolliger  40:41

Great. Well, thank you so much.

 

ENDING: 41:33

Thank you for joining us at the Healers Café with Manon Bolliger. Continue your healing journey by visiting TheHealersCafe.com and her website and discover how to listen to your body and reboot optimal health or DrManonBolliger.com/tips.

  * De-Registered, revoked & retired naturopathic physician, after 30 years of practice in healthcare. Now resourceful & resolved to share with you all the tools to take care of your health & vitality!