Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let's go. Let your heart guide your business journey.

Get ready to tickle your wellness whiskers, folks. Today, we're welcoming the magnetic master of medicine, the dazzling Dr. Monisha Bhanote. She's the wellness Wonder Woman who whirls ancient wisdom and modern marvels to make magical mind body mixtures. A quintuple threat with her fabulous fists full of board certifications and founder of Wellkula global guru and best-selling bibliophile. So buckle up! Beautiful beans. We are bound to boldly go into her heart-led business boots and all right here on the heart-led business show. Dr. Monisha, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Tom, for having me on the Heart-Led Business Show. Wow. That was a great introduction. I'm going to have to use that one again. That was amazing.

Well, you know, we were talking before the show about ChatGPT and using AI, and that was actually written by an AI with some prompting to have multiple alliterations within, within it, which is one of my favorite things is.

I love that it tapped into the Wonder Woman aspect because I will tell you my team has called me that with all the different things that I do. So I'm glad it knew that too.

That's awesome. So, you know, the first question I always ask is what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Yeah. Great, great question. So heart-led business. Heart-led, right? So it's, how do you take that junction between what your heart leads you to do and what you do with your business, right? And it really takes in for me looking at prioritizing your purpose, compassion, and integrity really are at that core of what's driving your vision, what's driving your mission, and really what's going to wake you up every day to lead a heart-led business. You know, for me, it's really about creating a system within my business that resonates not just with me, but with my team. And one of the things that I often when I'm interviewing people is, they are so on board with the mission. That is key to any hiring for me. That I see that even through the ups and downs that mission stays clear, and they have something beyond the financial of, oh, I need a job and I need to do this, that no matter what, they can always go back to, I came to do this job because I have this connection to it, whether it's a, you know, in the wellness business many people kind of, have a moment where they're like, Oh, I might need to leave corporate because I've had this experience or my family members had this experience. And I feel like I can contribute more. So that's where really having a mission and purpose that resonates with the entire team will make for a better heart-led business. And I think It also stems from having a genuine desire to make a positive impact. I often hear that from the people that I interview is like, they really want to make a difference. And to me, that means so much because we live in a very trying time and a very trying world where, you know, things move a lot quicker than maybe the results can show for. So, really having individuals who understand building relationships with other companies and other team members based on trust, based on that sense of belonging. And I love how you open the intro with being, right? Because this is who we are, we're human beings, and then we have all the other beings on the planet, right? So, it's all the stakeholders involved here. Not just myself, my company, my team it's everybody else that we're impacting. And that's really where we look at it. And I look at it from integrating those holistic practices and really intentional practices to support that mind, body, and soul from a personal, business, all-around embodying it.

That's a really good perspective as well. And I think that's you know, it's so interesting, like the interviewing of staff, like anytime that I interview a staff member and I hear the words, well, this job is going to give me the opportunity to blah, blah, blah. I just turn off because it's not about the job necessarily. There's no passion and purpose behind them wanting to work for a heart-led business. And that's refreshing to hear. I'm not the only one that, that, that does that and listens for, for those cues. That's cool. So what inspired you then to start your heart-led business?

Yeah, so it's been a long journey, shall I say, to say the least, you know, really, I mean, I've been in the wellness space now, health and wellness space for over 30 years. I pretty much grew up knowing that,"Okay, I was going to be a doctor, whether I liked it or not.", and It's really a matter of finding the place and the space that you feel that you can make that impact. And I think where I am now is deeply influenced from my real holistic approach to health and really looking at that whole thing and what I realized after decades of being in the hospital is,"I've got all these secrets", meaning secrets on how the human body heals. And yes, it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to sit in a hospital, do my job that I'm trained to do and just live out the next, like, you know, 80 or so years in my career because my career as a pathologist, we actually don't really retire. I mean, we're working at like 85 where, you know, it's a very fulfilling job in the sense of we're making these very complex diagnoses to help individuals. But then, you know, I'm like, okay, great. I've made these diagnoses. I've given the information to my colleagues, the clinicians whether they're the surgeons, oncologists other specialists to treat the patient, but why are people not getting better? And I'm like, wait a minute, something's missing here. Something is totally missing here. Because if I give you a diagnosis, you give the treatment. The person should get better. And that's where I started looking at it. I'm like, no, we're missing key factors here. We're missing that integrative, holistic approach, looking at what is the person doing? And that's where really I started applying those practices, not just for my business, but also for my own life and for my patient's life, right? So I realized after diagnosing all the, these diseases, that it's our lifestyle. Our environment and our daily choices that profoundly affect health. And that's really what drove me to create Wellkula, which is a, you know, a platform designed to foster intentional, sustainable-living, whether that's from a medical clinic perspective, whether that's from an educational perspective, whether that's from a immersive experience like my retreats. It's really about going off of autopilot and becoming really intentional with what am I doing in my 24 hours of a day? How am I spending my time? How could I be a better human partner, friend, employee, employer, and really just looking at that whole aspect of it. And I think that's where, you know, coming back to the heart-led business, it's really that integrity, that purpose. Every single decision is built on that culture for me. And yeah, it's been a long, interesting journey. And I think from a business perspective, it's ever evolving. And I think you refine the process and see where it leads you. And I think that's where if you can lead from heart, as opposed to going, Oh, I have this five year or 10 year business plan and I need to get here to here. You're going to enjoy it a lot more because it's never a straight line. We know it's not a straight line, you know, health is also not a straight line, but you'll enjoy the process more and you'll be more resilient to the stressors if you kind of have that, that ability to turn inwards and go, all right, this is what I'm doing. This is why I'm doing it. And this is how I can take my next best step forward.

Yeah. I really like what you said about the intentionality of the day and teaching people to be more intentional because like when I was doing nutrition coaching, like that was like, people are just so, it's just unconscious of putting stuff in their mouth. And you ask people to track their food. And there was a study done that just by asking people to track their food, they reduced their weight. They lost weight because now it became intentional. How are you seeing that in your practice in terms of the holistic approach to working with people?

It's interesting that you say you had people tracking their food. We absolutely do that in my practice. So we have a you know, food journal that I have individuals keep, and it's not just about tracking the food. It's also about tracking your mood along with it. Meaning okay, you had this meal. Did you feel good after the meal? Did you feel worse? Were you kind of just okay? And then also looking at it in that 24 hours, meaning at the end of the day, did you feel like you had a great day? Did you feel you know, tired? Did you feel like you had some kind of symptoms? That way we can backtrack. I mean, I just did this again with a patient yesterday where I'm looking at it and I'm going, hmmm, did you ever notice that at the end of the day is when you feel like you have the most gut pain and kind of stress and stuff like that, right? And I'm looking at her meals and I'm going, well, you're also putting the heaviest, hardest to digest meal at the end of the day and you eat your meal and then you sit down to relax. So we can do one of two things. We can either move those meals earlier up in the day, because then you're still going to be moving your body, which will help the process of digestion. Or we can, after you have your meal, introduce something to help digestion, whether that's a walk or something, once again, being more intentional with how you're spending your time. All right. So we do this very often with my patients. I know some of them are eating in the car. So when they're eating in the car, they definitely don't make the best choices or they're eating at their desk, right? So, mindfulness definitely plays a huge role in anything that we do, not just nutrition, right? So mindfully spending our days, intentionally spending our days. And I think that creating that greater degree of self-awareness, you know, as you go up the, I kind of have a X, Y chart that I use. For, you know, the more self-aware you are and the more intentional you are, the more you're creating instead of habits that are bad or routines, which you get burnt out from doing, you're rarely creating intentional rituals in your life that have greater meaning and purpose for you. And you don't feel like bad when you don't do a ritual because you know, it's been put in place to make things easier and better for you. As opposed to when you have a routine like, going to the gym and when you don't do it or you don't eat that salad or you don't do that smoothie or whatever, you feel bad when you don't do it because we've put this structure in place that doesn't allow you to tap into. What you need for that day and, and tap into what your heart, your mind, your body, your soul needs for that day.

Yeah, no, I think that that's really great. The, just tracking the mood and knowing like what what foods trigger what and all that and being able to diagnose what's going on with somebody. That's great. So let's shift gears a little bit to the business aspect of having a heart-led business. You had mentioned before, you know, it's not a straight line. You know, the 5 year, 10 year plan never goes as we want it to. But how's that been for you in terms of leading with heart versus just looking at the profit. How do you balance, you know, making money doing you're doing?

Yeah, absolutely. So, first and foremost, it's always about, I know I can make a change in a person's life if they, I mean, all I ask, I asked you to give me six months and I'm like, I can put you through med school on your specific body in six months, right? And I think the challenge has been really bridging that gap between conventional care and holistic practices. That's been challenge number one because just our culture is that, oh, we get sick, we go to the doctors, we get medicine, and we get better. When I know that that's not what works. So when you have both, when you have patients who are like, Oh, okay, well, you know, I have to do something now. Like I have to be involved in my health, meaning I actually have to track something. I have to change what I'm doing in my 24 hours. That is a bit of a mental shift for some people, for many people, I will say. Because we were so trained to just follow and do what we are told to do. I mean, that's basically you know, our education system, you go to school, you're told what to do, you're told what to do next. I mean, you go to a job, you're told what to do, right? You're not told how to think for yourself. So I think that's definitely a challenge bridging that gap between how can we really take the tools that conventional medicine has for us, whether that's the testing, the laboratory testing, the imaging, all of this great stuff, and really apply it in a way that's looking at the person and not looking at the disease or looking at the drug. I can stick on that disease. You know, there's definitely that navigation of skepticism that, you know, oh, okay, but now I have to pay for a service that my insurance does not cover. Why would I do that? And I always go back to the example of, you know, we get homeowners insurance, we get car insurance, we get all these things as a backup, as an emergency. Okay, it's not for like every day we're using it. And I really want people to start thinking of their health insurance as that backup too. This is for like big things when you end up in the hospital for you know, an accident or something like that. It is not necessarily your preventative, like as you move forward. So sometimes you're gonna have to do things and have extra expenses when it comes to health. Now, I would love it if we put this holistic, integrative approach into the healthcare model. Unfortunately, as the challenges are that our healthcare system is decades behind with how it does its billing and It's coding and all this stuff in order for these things to actually apply. And recently I've noticed that there have been a few laws proposed, and I don't know if they've gone through yet, but that we shouldn't be teaching nutrition, and we shouldn't be teaching patients how the body works. So, I think at this time, you know, people are becoming more awoke or awake in the sense that you are the one who has power over your health and your body. And it's up to you to step up and go. This is what I need to, this is what I need to live my best life, and ultimately be disease-free. So, I think definitely that bridge is coming. It's just, it's a slower bridge. The second thing that I think is really important to kind of touch upon is like I said, people have not been taught how the human body works. I think back on some of the classes that I learned in school and, you know, Home Ec was there and I'm like, that was one of the most valuable classes. And we've kind of gotten rid of a lot of these things that teach people like how to make a meal. I mean, we have people who can't even make a basic meal for themselves. And I'm talking about adults. in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s that weren't taught that. And, you know, I kind of have this motto because I'm always talking about cellular health and your 37 trillion cells in your body and how we really need to keep them healthy and happy. And I always say happy cells lead to happy you, right? And that's the cornerstone of my philosophy on and kind of conveying that cellular health is you can see it in a very relatable way. In fact, I even compare the human cell to a cell phone because everybody's got a cell phone, right? So what do we do at the end of the day? We plug our cell phone into recharge. What don't we do as a human person? Plug ourselves into recharge. We can replace our phone every year. You can't replace your body. So this is where, you know, making sure that the cells that make up who you are, are getting the nutrients they need, the sleep they need, the movement they need, the emotional care they need, right? So, that is also a very challenging thing when it comes from a business aspect, because once again, I go back to where you used to get sick, get drunk, get better. Not really. But, so.

Perceived, right? But you think we should be changing the name of healthcare to just sickcare and the health insurance is really not health insurance. It's sick insurance.

Yeah. That's a great question. Do we change the name? Or do we go further and go, we don't need to be this way, you know, like we don't need to live our lives this way instead of going into a facility, which, you know, we don't go into hospitals to get better. I mean, I've walked the halls of hospitals from like 6 AM in the morning till midnight for decades. And I don't see, you know, that people go in to get better. Yeah. You might go in to get your surgery, but then if you go back to living your lifestyle, the way you were, you're going to be back in there, right? It's a revolving door that, and there is revolving doors in hospitals, right?

Literally. Yeah.

You're welcomed back actually. Like, let's see you back. But so to answer your question on what changing the name work? No, I think we need to look outside for other ways to heal. And that's where, you know, for me as a physician, I've actually created immersive retreats, where just in five days, I can show you how quickly you can change your body. I mean, it's kind of funny because my focus is gut health and longevity. But literally on day one of a retreat, I have people having better bowel movements than they have in like a decade on medications, right? So, there is something to taking that approach from the mind, the body, the soul, and really kind of tapping into that. And I love retreats for that because it's an immersive experience. It gets you to step out of your autopilot. It's a pattern interruption where you can then go really focus. And You take those tools back with you, right? So, it's not like you go into a doctor's office for 15 minutes, get your drug, and then you'v e changed your health. No, you addressed a symptom, right? But incorporating things like that. And I know there's numbers of wellness centers and all that starting to do that. I think that should be the paradigm that everybody has on their schedule, at least once a year, a kind of transformative, immersive experience retreat where they are going to do a body reset where they're going to recalibrate their body, their mind, their soul. I know I think about it from a perspective of like, you know, we get some people get three weeks vacation. Some people get, you know, more, but when I would talk to my colleagues about what they would do on their vacations, it was one of two things. One, they do nothing. They just stay at home and like veg out. Two, they would go somewhere, party super, super hard and feel worse when they came back, right? So what did I always do? If you ever looked at my calendar. Every quarter I would be on some kind of experience where I was actually rejuvenating myself. So, you know, I've attended so many retreats, which is why, you know, even with attending them, I'm like, Oh, this is missing, that's missing. So why don't I just create the best version of everything 30 years?

Yeah. That's really key and changing the paradigm of people's mind in terms of what does insurance pay for? What are we responsible for? And I have another guest on the show that said, you know, one of the best things that came out of COVID was that people realized that they need to take responsibility for their own health. And it really elevated the idea that we need this wellness movement. And we need to pay for it instead of relying on somebody else to potentially pay for it when we get sick.

You know, there is a saying around in the community that if you don't pay for it now, you'll be paying for it a lot more much later because medications are extremely expensive. And you can't really get your body back in that way, you know, so prevention. Doing it now, whatever age you are, you know, and starting there is really going to be the key. And I have seen many diseases reversed once a person has basically made the decision to go. All right. I'm the one in charge. I might need a guide I might need somebody to tell me what to do but every day I'm gonna make that decision to wake up and be the best version of myself, and try and make the best meal, and try and do something for my body, and try and do something for my mind, and if I can't, I will try again tomorrow, right? It's not about like, being hard on yourself. There's no perfection when comes to, health, you know, so I don't want you to get in your head that you got to be like, perfect, I got to do this. But it's, you are your own worst enemy and you are your own bestfriend, right? So you decide.

And back to what your first point was being intentional about what you do each day, not just what you eat, but how you move, how you think, how you interact with people. I think that's really the lesson and just a beautiful lesson as well that everybody's on autopilot. It just seems, and it's sad to see.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, so many more things from a business perspective. I think you can translate that to, are you intentional with your business? Or are we just trying to make the next payroll? I mean, as a business grows there's going to be, you know, ups and downs and like, maybe you thought this program or this plan or this offering was going to be it and you have to adjust along the way. And I think that staying true to that core of why you're doing it, what you were doing and always just doing that check-in will help you make the decision going. It is this the right thing to do next?

Yeah, that's great. Great, great advice as well for other heart-led business owners out there. So tell us a little bit about the retreat that you have coming up because I saw on the website, it looks amazing, by the way. So tell us a little bit about what goes on there.

Yeah, thank you. So my next retreat, we do annual retreats, but the next one is in November 2024 in Playa del Carmen. It's a 6-day, 5-night retreat based off of the five elements of Ayurveda. So earth, wind, fire, like ether, all the elements, right? So, but what we're doing is we're taking that ancient wisdom and combining it with modern science. So, we're incorporating things like infrared and cold plunge, really? Because the goal is it's a plant-powered longevity retreat. And I really want to revitalize your cells. You remember those 37 trillion cells of yours on that cellular level from that mind, from that body, from that soul, and even go deeper. So that experience is, it's a co-ed experience and this venue we've chosen for it will just blow your mind away. I mean. I promise you, you will feel so much better. Our attendees who went last year, I mean, they're still kind of daydreaming and raving about it and I feel like every year it just gets better and better. And the one thing I should mention, Wellkula, the name of my business, Kula', means an intentional community of like-minded individuals in Sanskrit, okay? And'Well' translates for me, we live long in intentional community.

Nice.

So for me, it is the other people who attend the you know, the other guests and really watching their transformations go from this like kind of stressed out, sad face upon arrival to, I swear, like the happiness and joy just coming out of their hearts, you know? And I'm like, yes, remember that, you know, how to feel that way. It is possible to feel that way. And you take these tools that you learn, like you don't need to be in an exotic location to do this. What I want you to take from it is the tools that you learn there and apply them to your days at home.

Yeah. Oh, that's brilliant. And having that reset, having it at a exotic location is great to just kind of plunge into it and then reincorporate that into your life. So that's, that's awesome. We'll we'll put the link to that in the show notes as well. So if anybody's interested in going on that retreat, then please check that out. And how else can people get a hold of you, Monisha.

Yeah, absolutely. So my website is Dr. Bhanote and on social media, whether that's Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, it's Dr. Bhanote, the only ones. Easy to find. Also check out my bestselling book, which is The Anatomy of Wellbeing, where it is about intentional practices. But I really talk about how the human body works on that cellular level. As, as you mentioned earlier, I am a quintuple board certified medical doctor, so I've really taken my years of training and translated it into a approachable, relatable way that even if you took just a few pages of that book and applied it, your health and well-being would be better.

Awesome. Cool. We'll link all that up into the show notes and make sure that the listeners can get all those resources as well. Thank you so much, Manisha, for joining us on the show today. Really appreciate your wisdom and the advice that you shared with everybody today.

Thank you so much, Tom, for having me on the Heart-Led Business Show and I feel like my heart is already expanded.

Awesome! And a note for our listeners. Thank you so much for listening or watching. If you're watching this on YouTube. I really appreciate that. And also make sure you're checking out what Dr. Bhanote is doing and provide, and all that information is provided in the show notes. And one last ask, please do what other smart and considerate listeners do. And that is share the show with others that could use the advice that was shared on today's show. So until next time, lead with your heart.

You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.