IAM138- Certified Pharmacist and Creative Talent Passionate About Advocating for Healthy Lifestyle

Certified Pharmacist and creative talent, Dr. Mona Vand, covers everything beauty, health, fitness, and overall wellness with a modern twist in pharmaceutical science. While most pharmacists believe in filling prescriptions, Mona advocates for and believes in a healthy lifestyle. She aims to teach her dedicated followers that medication is only part of the equation for maximum health, and emphasizes that wellness stems from diet, exercise, and mindset. Ultimately, she strives to make the world a healthier place, one smart decision at a time! Mona is based in LA and has been featured on NBC, The Telegraph, The Doctors, and more, as we’ll as completing successful partnerships with brands including Loccitane, Thrive Market, Sakara Life, Fab Fit Fun, UMA Oils, Fabletics, Sulwhasoo, and more.

• CEO Hack: Calendaring and sticking to a routine
• CEO Nugget: Keep practising patience and appreciate every step along the way
• CEO Defined: Everything falls back on you

Website:https://www.drmonavand.com/

IG: @drmonavand
Online Course: https://gethotandhealthy.com/

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello. hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Mona Vand of drmonavand.com. Dr. Mona, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Dr. Mona Vand 0:36

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be on

Gresham Harkless 0:39

I'm thrilled to have you on and what I wanted to do was really read a little bit more about Dr. Mona so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Certified pharmacist and creative talent. Dr. Mona Vand covers everything beauty, health, fitness, and overall wellness with modern twists in pharmaceutical science. While most pharmacists believe in filling prescriptions Dr. Mona advocates for and believes in a healthy lifestyle, she aims to teach her dedicated followers that medication is only part of the equation for maximum health and emphasizes that wellness stems from diet, exercise, and mindset. Ultimately, she strives to make the world a healthier place. One smart decision at a time. Dr. Mona is based in LA and has been featured in NBC, the telegraph, the doctors, and more as well as completing several partnerships with brands including Loccitane, Thrive Market, Sakara Life, Fab Fit Fun, UMA Oils, Fabletics, Sulwhasoo, and more. Dr. Mona, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Dr. Mona Vand 1:38

I'm ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:39

All right, let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Dr. Mona Vand 1:46

It's funny because I've always even thought of myself as a CEO necessarily, because when I started my business and brand, I didn't really know what I wanted it to be, I just knew I wanted to give myself the option to do many things if that makes sense. Like I wanted to give myself the option to have like creative control over any job that could come whether it was writing a book, being on a show, starting my own brand, start a product, I just knew that building leverage around my personal brand would give me the opportunity to do that. So that was kind of my focus.

Gresham Harkless 2:18

Awesome, awesome, yeah, that makes perfect sense. And it's fine to have a lot of entrepreneurial-type people that are super ambitious and have a lot of things that they want to be involved in. But they kind of started out by building their own personal brand first, and then kind of because they're true to themselves, kind of everything just kind of manifests itself from there.

Dr. Mona Vand 2:34

Exactly. Because, it wasn't like I saw, maybe if your dream was to own like an ad agency, or start a production company if you had that one focus that was yours just for me. I liked the idea of doing different things. But I knew that I loved health, and wellness skincare, I knew what it was like, my background, and what I had studied for six years. So just made sense to see where it would go and then give myself the option to do all sorts of things.

Gresham Harkless 2:58

Absolutely. That makes perfect sense. And now I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear how you're helping to support like these clients and these people that are following and can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Dr. Mona Vand 3:07

I'm sorry, what was the question?

Gresham Harkless 3:08

Could you tell us a little Yes, a little bit more about how you're supporting the clients that you're working with people that are following you and engaging with you? How are you helping to kind of support them from our product and service standpoint?

Dr. Mona Vand 3:17

Yeah, I think that I'm really just trying to do is give them backed-up data for everything I say, instead of just giving random advice, I like to think of like, what I learned what my education really taught me, and how I've actually applied it in real life, but then really humanize it and just kind of show how I've used it in my life, how the experience has affected me, oftentimes people will ask me, I find people ask me questions about everything because they assume that I'm just a health expert on everything. And I'm definitely not. So I always like to make sure I tell them, like, I'm still doing trial and error with it some testing, I'll let And I think that kind of human connection makes people just trust me, especially because I don't just go around making everything like rah, rah, this is going to be a miracle, this is going to work perfectly. I think keeping it real is what people appreciate.

Gresham Harkless 4:05

Yeah, especially I can imagine like when you're talking about somebody's health encompasses so many different things anyways, and like you mentioned, the beauty, health, wellness, and fitness. But being able to kind of be upfront and honest with somebody that if you do X, Y, and Z, this will happen. And that kind of sells them I guess a dream so to speak.

Dr. Mona Vand 4:22

Exactly. Just kind of like just making it more realistic. Another thing I've always talked about is that I do really believe that everyone's different so I can share what works for me and I can share what can work for some people. But I think making everyone believe that one diet is going to work for everyone or that one way of living is going to work for everyone isn't necessarily realistic, either.

Gresham Harkless 4:41

Yeah, that makes sense. There's no one size fits all plan to help which a lot of people sometimes make it out to be. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be something you feel kind of distinguishes you or your brand or sets you apart. So could you give us an example of a secret sauce for yourself?

Dr. Mona Vand 4:56

Yeah, I think for me, it's as having expertise in something I think a lot of bloggers or influencers will talk about a lot of people love, like living well, and wellness and health, but they don't have specific expertise in one thing. So I think kind of narrowing down on that, for me has really been helpful. And even though I've been, I started in the health and wellness spaces, it always evolves and grows and can go into more lifestyle and fashion or whatever you want. But as long as like you're rooted at that one thing, that's your expertise. What worries me, I think it's pharmacy health. I think that's always been kind of my secret, like, What sets me out? And what makes me different than someone else?

Gresham Harkless 5:34

That makes sense. And I guess, do you find that there's a certain time when you figure out that you do and can branch out? Or do you find like, that just kind of happens organically as far as different projects?

Dr. Mona Vand 5:45

Well, what's funny is like, that's even something I still struggle with, just to be totally real, I don't want to branch out too much. Because I've always, had the impression that people want to follow me for a certain reason. And that's why they came to me, I always want to give them that value because they have been supporting me from the beginning. But it's a lot of times, my community will be like, Oh, we want to see like, I'll always do polls if you want to see more personal stuff, or if you just want health content, and they always want more personal stuff. And I just now I'm kind of trying to like, ease into it. But I still try to tie it all back to wellness. And maybe that's something as time goes on, will grow. But I really did want to take at least a few years to really establish them. Maybe once people are genuinely invested in you, then I can share more of my personal life, what I care about travels, but I tried to really earn their respect and like really their time because you have to earn people from people that are following you or looking at your content. Like that's a privilege, for them to actually give me the attention that I'm looking for. And I actually haven't read the content that I'm putting out. So I tried to make it as valuable as possible for a long time. And then, maybe slightly branch out.

Gresham Harkless 6:51

So that makes perfect sense. Awesome, awesome. , awesome. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Dr. Mona Vand 7:04

Definitely calendaring was just funny because it's something that I've always wanted to do and like the kind of struggled with. And I now have an assistant Julia, that works with me. And she's massively helped me in that department. So having everything on my calendar is huge. And then I think routine is that I actually find a routine. So important. And when people ask me why I still wake up early, even if I don't have to be up early that day, or like why I like to stick to like a certain regimen. It's not because I want to like suffer discipline. It's just that my energy and my personality function better on routine, I understand people who don't want some people who like to just maybe stay up really late one night or you know, sleep late one morning, and as long as they're getting the job one getting the job done, I think you just have to find what works for you. So for me, having a consistent routine, me feel more grounded, and I just like to feel more stable. And like in control of the day. That's been if I don't, if I kind of go off one day, or I may be sleeping a little bit later, I just really genuinely feel off for the day. So it just doesn't work for me.

Gresham Harkless 8:06

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I've heard that a lot from, a lot of successful people. It's just, that routine, the consistency as well kind of manifests itself in all your actions. So all of a sudden, you're doing all the things on a consistent basis, largely because you are taking care of your routine at the beginning of the day or throughout the day. So that kind of sets the standard.

Dr. Mona Vand 8:23

Yeah, I can't believe how much it makes a difference in my day. It really does.

Gresham Harkless 8:27

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self like,

Dr. Mona Vand 8:38

I guess, to just keep practicing patience because like you wanted to, and even at the beginning of three, I was really frustrated that nothing was working. And then finally things just like start to click and that's really not that much time. And, I think seeing for other people, maybe it happens quicker, maybe it takes longer, but just being patient, and you know, appreciating every step along the way, that probably would have saved me some headache.

Gresham Harkless 9:00

Yeah, that makes sense. I think anybody who's extremely ambitious and really going after their goals and dreams and has high goals, sometimes you want it earlier than it comes. But you kind of have to respect the process and start to love the process, so to speak.

Dr. Mona Vand 9:14

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 9:15

Absolutely. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and grow up and have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So I wanted to ask you what does being a CEO means to you.

Dr. Mona Vand 9:26

What does being a CEO mean to me, I guess being a CEO means kind of just being in charge of your brand, your life, and your business, everything really falls back on you. And that's something I've learned along the way too even though I've started to build up this amazing team who can handle different things and who is better than what I do at certain things like YouTube editing or whether it's someone who's your assistant for calendaring. At the end of the day, you're still in charge even though that person might be the best at it. So your company and your brand you just have to make sure you're always on top of it and you can't really get mad at anyone else if something goes wrong. It's called on you.

Gresham Harkless 10:00

There you go. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So, Dr. Mona, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule, what I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional. You want to let our readers and our listeners know and then also how best people can get a hold of you follow you and get in touch with you.

Dr. Mona Vand 10:17

No, I think just, I really work hard to put out quality, consistent content all the time. We're constantly working to see like, what the next step is, I think one piece of advice would be sometimes when you are in it, you keep thinking, hey, what am I going to do next? What am I going to come out with something I think it's important to let it happen when the time to write versus just rushing out a product, the only product ever that came out was really with my online course. And it was really special. We put a lot of work into it. And even now what I'm thinking of my next thing, as anything I put out will just be really from the heart and something that's really quality and something that we put a lot of time into versus just kind of busting out like oh, here's a nutrition plan. here's a fitness plan. I think when you see that from the outside, you assume that you're not doing enough, but just focus on the quality of your work. And then it shows when you actually are ready to just let it out. And as far as where to find me across the board and Dr. Mona Vande on Instagram, and YouTube and website and most of my content are live on Instagram and YouTube.

Gresham Harkless 11:20

Awesome. awesome. Well, thank you so much Dr. Mona and then what I'll do is we'll make sure we have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow up. But again, I appreciate you for taking some time out and all the awesome things that you're doing and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Dr. Mona Vand 11:31

Thank you, you too.

Outro 11:33

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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