IAM1558 – 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 well as completing successful partnerships with brands including Loccitane, Thrive Market, Sakara Life, Fab Fit Fun, UMA Oils, Fabletics, Sulwhasoo, and more.

• CEO Story: When Dr. Mona started her own business she did not really know what she would do with her brand, she just wanted to have creative control over any job that would come either to write a book, create a brand, or show or start a product, she just knew that building leverage over her personal brand would give her the opportunity to do that.
• Business Service: Giving them advice with backup data. Humanize it, tell the clients she uses it and how it worked for her. Keeping it real makes people appreciate it and build a human connection. No diet fits all.
• Secret Sauce: Expert on something, narrowing it down. Rooted at one expertise.
• CEO Hack: Calendaring and sticking to a routine.
• CEO Nugget: Keep practicing patience and appreciate every step along the way.
• CEO Defined: Everything falls back on you.

Website:www.drmonavand.com

Instagram: drmonavand
Online Course: gethotandhealthy.com

Episode Link: https://iamceo.co/2018/12/27/iam138-certified-pharmacist-and-creative-talent-passionate-about-advocating-for-healthy-lifestyle/

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Transcription

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00:17 – Intro

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.

00:42 – Gresham Harkless

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.

00:52 – Dr. Mona Vand

Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be on.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

I'm thrilled to have you on. What I want 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 a modern twist 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 L'Occitane, Thrive Market, Sakara, Life, FabFitFun, Uma Oils, Fabletics, Suwasu, and more. Dr. Mona, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:53 – Dr. Mona Vand

I'm ready.

01:54 – Gresham Harkless

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.

02:00 – Dr. Mona Vand

It's funny because I don't always even think 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 it. I wanted to give myself the option to do many things if that makes sense. I wanted to give myself the option to have like creative control over any job that could come, whether it was writing a book, whether it was to be on a show, starting my own brand, or starting 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.

02:33 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Yeah, that makes perfect sense and it's fine that for 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 start out by building their own personal brand first and then because they're true to themselves, everything just kind of manifests itself from there.

02:49 – Dr. Mona Vand

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

03:13 – Gresham Harkless

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

03:22 – Dr. Mona Vand

Yeah, I think that I'm really just. What I try to do is give them backed-up data for everything I say. Like, instead of just giving random advice, I like to think of 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 show how I've used it in my life, and 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 I'm still doing trial and error with this. I'm testing it out. I'll let you know. I think that human connection makes people trust me, especially because I don't just go around making everything rah-rah. This is going to be a miracle. This is going to work perfectly. I think keeping it really real is what people appreciate.

04:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, especially I can imagine, like, when you're. You're talking about somebody's health, it 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, that this will happen and not kind of sell them, I guess, a dream, so to speak.

04:27 – Dr. Mona Vand

Exactly. Just kind of like, just making it more realistic. Another thing I've always talked about is, like, 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 one way of living is going to work for everyone isn't necessarily realistic either.

04:46 – Gresham Harkless

There you go. That makes sense. There's no one-size-fits-all in health, which a lot of people sometimes make it out to be. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be something you feel distinguishes you or your brand or sets you apart. So could you give us an example of a secret sauce for yourself?

05:01 – Dr. Mona Vand

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

05:39 – Gresham Harkless

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

05:50 – Dr. Mona Vand

Well, what's funny is 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. I always have 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 that they have been supporting me for 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. Like, do you want to see more personal stuff or do you just want health content?

They always want more personal stuff. Now I'm trying to ease into it, but I still try to tie it all back to wellness. Maybe that's something that, as time goes by, will grow. But I really did want to take it at least. At least a few years to really establish. Then maybe once people are genuinely invested in you, then I can share, like, more of my personal life, what I care about travels. But I tried to really earn their respect and really their time because you have to earn people.

Some people that are following you, looking at your content, like, that's a privilege for them to actually give me the attention that I'm looking for. I actually have them 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.

06:55 – Gresham Harkless

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

07:09 – Dr. Mona Vand

Definitely calendaring, which is funny because it's something that I've always wanted to do and struggled with. I now have an assistant, Julia, who works with me, and she's massively helped me in that department. So having everything in my calendar is huge, then I think routine. I actually find routine so important. When people ask me why I still wake up early, even if I don't have to be up early that day, or, why I like to stick to a certain regimen, it's not because I want to suffer discipline. It's just that my energy and my personality functions better on routine.

I think there's some people who don't and some people who like to just maybe stay up really late one night or, sleep late one morning. 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, I feel more grounded and I just feel more stable and in control of the day. So that's been. If I don't. If I kind of go off it one day or I maybe sleep in a little bit later, I just really genuinely feel off for the day. It just doesn't work for me.

08:10 – Gresham Harkless

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

08:28 – Dr. Mona Vand

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

08:31 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. 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 can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

08:42 – Dr. Mona Vand

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

09:05 – Gresham Harkless

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.

09:19 – Dr. Mona Vand

Exactly.

09:19 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition for what it means to be a CEO and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So I wanted to ask you what being a CEO means to you.

09:31 – Dr. Mona Vand

What does being a CEO mean to me? I guess being a CEO means just being in charge of your brand, your life, and your business. Everything really falls back on you. That's something I've learned along the way too, even though I've started to build out this amazing team who can handle different things and who are 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. It's still your company and your brand. So you just have to make sure you're always on of it. You can't really get mad at anyone. Else if something goes wrong, it's all on you.

10:05 – Gresham Harkless

There you go. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. The buck stops with you whenever you're a CEO. So, Dr. Mona, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. 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 our listeners know and then also how best people can get ahold of you, follow you, and get in touch with you.

10:22 – Dr. Mona Vand

I think I really work hard to put out quality consistent content all the time. We're constantly working to see 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? When am I going to come out with something? I think it's important to let it happen when the time is right versus just rushing out a product or rushing out.

The only product I ever came out with really was my online course. It was really special. We put a lot of work into it and even now when I'm thinking of my next thing, 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 busting out like, oh, here's nutrition. Here is a fitness plan.

I think when you see that from the outside, you assume that you're not doing enough but to just focus on the quality of your work and then it shows when you actually are ready to just let it out. As far as where to find me across the board, I'm Dr. Mona Vand. So Dr. Mona Van V A N D. So it's on Instagram and YouTube and website and most of my content lives on Instagram and YouTube.

11:25 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Mona. 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.

11:36- Dr. Mona Vand

Thank you. You too.

11:38 – Outro

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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