IAM654- Naturopathic Doctor Addresses Inflammation and Autoimmunity

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 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello. this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today as Elizabeth Yarnell of the elizabethyarnell.com Elizabeth, it's awesome to have you on a show.

Elizabeth Yarnell 0:39

Oh Gresh. I'm so excited to be chatting with you.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

Definitely super exciting as well. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Elizabeth so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Elizabeth is a board certified traditional naturopathic doctor with a nationwide clinic that specializes in using customized dietary therapies for addressing inflammatory and auto immunity. Her award winning cookbook glorious one pot meals offers a quick, easy and healthy way to cook at home and has sold over 60,000 copies. Additionally, she is a multi passionate entrepreneur with an edgy tech company called digit stars make a movie workshop that offers 21st century learning experiences for elementary and middle school students. Elizabeth is a compelling keynote speaker about health, leadership, and innovative education. Elizabeth, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Elizabeth Yarnell 1:29

I'm here, throw it at me Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 1:31

Let's do it. Let's make it happen. So to kick everything off, I wanted to start I guess kind of in the beginning to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story What led you to start your business.

Elizabeth Yarnell 1:42

So I'll start with my main business as a naturopathic doctor. And for me, that all started one night, about two weeks before my 30th birthday when I went to sleep as usual, and I woke the next morning blind in my right eye. And in short order, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. So at that time, 80% of MS patients were expected to have significant disabilities within 10 years of diagnosis. And I didn't want to be in a wheelchair by the time I was 40. So that's what really led me to start studying natural health and trying to figure out what I could do to make my future look better than they were forecasting for me. And that's when I really learned about the power of nutrition and diet. So that's how that business started. And then my tech company started because well, my very first job while I was out of college was in the film and video industry and I was in production for a good decade. And then I became an instructional designer. And I really focused on delivering adult learning experiences like training programs for big fortune 500 companies, mostly telecoms like Lucent Technologies AT and T over what then was a very new and, unknown field of the internet, and CD around. So I'm really dating myself. And then when I got sick that really changed my focus for a while. But fast forward a number of years when my oldest child was in second grade and his school received a grant for art technology integration into the classroom. And I was tasked to run the administer the grant along with a film professor who was another parent. And we created these digital storytelling programs for every student in kindergarten through fifth grade through this. It was a elementary school that was a magnet school for the gifted and talented. And then after about six years of running those programs for that school, we decided to turn it into a business to offer to kids who weren't lucky enough just to go to that one elementary school. And for the last 10 years, we've offered 1000s of of kids enrichment and engaging programs in multimedia creation through digital storytelling. And then last year, I closed the doors and put it all up online. So now it's a global enterprise.

Gresham Harkless 4:05

Nice,I definitely appreciate that appreciate you sharing about both of your businesses. And I think one of the I guess common threads that I hear is that the ability to kind of share out those stories and obviously to hear and to wake up and not be able to see is very scary but you being able to kind of do the work yourself. But then on a deeper level be able to kind of help out so many people's you know sharing in being able to sell 60,000 copies as well to over 60,000 copies is an opportunity to really share not only what you've been able to kind of work through and learn but how about so many other people that might be dealing with some of the same things.

Elizabeth Yarnell 4:41

You're absolutely right. And if there is a thread in between my businesses and my life it is that I create products and techniques that help other people and make their lives easier.

Gresham Harkless 4:55

That's very, very powerful. And I love that and Can you expound I guess Little bit upon like how exactly you do that with each of the company so people can get an idea of like, what I guess tribe they fall in, if not both tribes?

Elizabeth Yarnell 5:09

Well, you know, it's such a weird time now because we're talking in the middle of this pandemic, and everybody's quarantined at home, which is a perfect opportunity for all of my businesses, because all everything I do, will help make your time at home better, whether it's my glorious one pot meals cooking technique, which allows you to whip together healthy meals in about 15 or 20 minutes, and right out of your freezer or pantry. So even if you don't have fresh foods available, haven't been to the grocery store, or really out of your house for a while. You can still cook healthy meals for your family and save your budget from taking delivery all the time, all of that. Or if it's that you're home, and your kids are home from school, maybe for the rest of the school year, and they're driving you crazy because they can't do their normal activities and they can't see their friends. Well, my digit stars make a movie workshop programs are perfect. And if your kid is 10 years old, even they can take themselves through the program. It's really a step by step portal, where you start and module one, and by module 10, you end up with a completed movie.

Gresham Harkless 6:15

That's definitely exciting. And I think that especially for the kids that are, the parents of the kids, I should say they're listening to this. They're trying to get them to be in leverage and tap into that creativity and try to, I think this time requires a lot of out of the box kind of solutions to solve these problems that we have. And I think that as a parent that may be trying to figure out what exactly to do with the children and for wanting to feed over to to nourish their minds and to feed their souls. I think yeah, you provide that one to kind of punch that definitely helped that out.

Elizabeth Yarnell 6:46

I agree. And you just wrapped it up perfectly. Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 6:51

You're very, very welcome. So I now wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And you might have already touched on this but this is for yourself or your businesses. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Elizabeth Yarnell 7:01

So for my secret sauce as a naturopath it's that I am also immunocompromised. I am an MS patient myself, I understand that really sheer terror that comes from not knowing what your future is going to hold MS and other autoimmune diseases are so capricious. One day you're finding the next day you're not walking. So it's very scary. And for as a naturopath I've really developed a unique three pronged approach to manage autoimmunity naturally through targeted dietary changes, and other assistance for digestion. And it's super, super effective in managing autoimmunity and keeping yourself healthy and not inflamed, because really autoimmunity and health is all about inflammation. And then the secret sauce for digit stars is that nobody else is doing this. This is not heard of in there are some movie making programs starting in maybe junior high or high school. But really for the elementary school market, which is my target. Nobody's addressing the fact that these kids are digital natives and they know you can them an iPad, they know what to do with it. I don't need to invest in a $5,000 camera and a huge $10,000 Editing setup, I can hand a seven year old and iPad and show them what to do. And in my program, we have instructional videos that are hosted by an 11 year old who comes out and says okay, guys, this is what we're going to do next, we were going to figure out who the characters are in our story. And this is how we determine that. And then once we do that, we're gonna build our characters. And then we're gonna build our backdrops. And now this is how we film. So she really teaches them every single thing they have to do every step of the way. And then interspersed throughout the learning, there's all of these sample videos that have been made by other digit star students in the past. So just like in a film class in a college or, or post grad environments where you're in production one on one, you're also watching video clips, you're also looking at techniques and getting inspiration from what other people have done. And knowledge. It's the same process. So it's this really amazingly robust and exciting curriculum. And let me tell you, once your eight year old looks at what other kids have done and made using these techniques, they're off and running. It's really incredible.

Gresham Harkless 9:28

Absolutely, no, I absolutely love that and appreciate you for doing that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an apple book or habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Elizabeth Yarnell 9:44

So I was thinking about this and the hack I wanted to share is one of my mentors, one of the people I follow and her name is Grace lever she's an Australian woman, and she works with female entrepreneurs and I have found her to be so insightful and somehow so she explains things in a way, that as soon as she says that I'm like, oh, yeah, I can go do that. And I go do it. So, follow Grace levers. She's awesome.

Gresham Harkless 10:14

I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Elizabeth Yarnell 10:27

So I have a number of mantras that I follow in my naturopathic business, one of my mantras is Whole Foods are better than processed foods. For example. In my business life as a CEO, one of my mantras is this too shall pass like this is, it may seem something might seem like a crisis right at this moment. And we can even talk about the state of the world, right at this moment seems it feels like a big crisis. But this too shall pass. And we will move on from this. And then another mantra that I follow a lot is, again, from Grace lever, and her one of her mantras is take massively imperfect action. So don't get stuck in that perfectionism spiral where you won't release anything and won't share your gift with the world because you don't think it's perfect yet. Sometimes you just send it out there, even though it's not perfect. And that's okay.

Gresham Harkless 11:29

Yeah, absolutely. And there's definitely power in words. And I think when you have those mantras when you are saying those things sometimes, and I don't know, scientifically, you know how it works. But I know that sometimes when you speak things out, and you continue to do that, you have those mantras that you go back to, especially in times of, you know, difficulty, like, this too shall pass. It reminds you of that, and you start to really, believe it, not just in the words that you're saying, but inherently in everything you that you are in your being. And you start to act in that way as well, too.

Elizabeth Yarnell 12:00

Yes, I would agree.

Gresham Harkless 12:02

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote unquote, CEOs on this show. So Elizabeth, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Elizabeth Yarnell 12:15

Ah, what does being a CEO means? It means that the fate of my genius lies in my own hands, whether I succeed or fail is completely up to me. And that's both empowering and frightening.

Gresham Harkless 12:34

Absolutely, and I love the word, you know, genius and the fate of your genius, because I think so many times, we will sometimes leave it up to chance and leave it up to somebody else. But when you have that mentality, you understand that we were given certain gifts, our genius, those things to kind of cultivate and grow in on an even deeper level share with the world. I think it puts it all in perspective for us, but also for the greater world and the impact that we can potentially have.

Elizabeth Yarnell 13:01

I would agree.

Gresham Harkless 13:03

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Again, Elizabeth, I truly appreciate your time, what I wanted 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 listeners know and of course, how best they can get a hold of you did a copy of the cookbook, and then of course getting in contact with you about all the awesome things you're doing.

Elizabeth Yarnell 13:21

Excellent. So I'm kind of split personality these days. So the first side of my personality is my naturopathic health business and glorious one pot meals. And this is such an opportune time to pick up glorious one pot meals if you're not familiar with it, because it will seriously change your life in the kitchen especially now that we need to be cooking at home more. And to help do that if you go to the GloriousOnePotMeals.com Then you can pick up a free checklist for it's called The Ultimate checklist for stocking your freezer and pantry which will help you pull together foods that you can just keep in your house and you can cook very comfortably out of whether or not you have access to fresh foods or not. So that's number one. My other side of my personality for digit stars if you go to digistarsusa.com You'll see that I am offering a stop motion animation checklists. So if you're a parent, you can get this free checklist download and it will show you all the tools and equipment that you need to pull together an awesome stop motion animation project for your kid while they're staying at home. Probably stuff you already have. If you have a smartphone or a tablet, or anything, a webcam anything like that your kiddo can be making amazing stop motion animations that they can use. Who's for their schoolwork or for their entertainment?

Gresham Harkless 15:03

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well thank you so much again, Elizabeth. We will have the links and information in the show notes and definitely as a Gemini I can definitely connect with dual personalities as well too. So I appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 15:17

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai