Christa and her husband Mike chose to market their business while doing good. Instead of spending their marketing dollars to promote their business, they connected with their network and asked them to Check in for a Cause, so each time members of their gym Tuff Girl Fitness share their gym experience on social media, Christa and Mike donate to a local charity. For their first month, their innovative marketing efforts coupled with their desire to do good, will allow them to present a check to the Hamden Food Bank.
At 43, with two young children, Rebecca was told she had Stage 4 Metastatic breast cancer and had 3 years to live. She feared for her kids and how they'd live without her. A month after her diagnosis she was "upgraded" to Stage 3 and could begin to seek a cure. But what about all the women she'd met who had Stage 4? What would happen to them? Her choice was to not leave these women behind. She stopped her neuropsychology practice and now devotes her time and energy to The Cancer Couch Foundation. Her choice has led her on a journey to partner with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York to generate funds for research projects specifically focused on Metastatic Breast Cancer.
Eric, and his wife Amy, consciously seek out opportunities to help others by making an anonymous donation each year. They envision creating a book for their grandchildren that chronicles the stories of their random acts of kindness, hoping their book will be a family legacy allowing future generations to be bitten by the giving bug.
After Eric learned that a single mom, who the family knew distantly, had to spend her scrupulously amassed Christmas savings to replace a totaled car, he and Amy filled an envelope with money. On Christmas morning, a trusted friend knocked on the woman’s door, handed her the stuffed envelope, wished her a Merry Christmas and walked away.
Eric never heard anything more about the donation, but hoped he’d given the women great encouragement in a tough time.
Knowing she was meant to have a great impact via speaking, Patty Lennon chose to take on a challenge to speak 50 times in 50 weeks. In that process she overcame resistance to her fears, encountered all types of speaking experiences, and ultimately embodied that she's fully here to serve and can speak her message anywhere. Patty's choice to speak has led to the ripple effect of her now teaching others about the power of the transformation that will come for them when they take the leap to speak consistently, regardless of the hurdles.
Here are some timestamps for you so you can easily check out a few of her highlights.
Make a tangible choice when life feels out of control. [00:05:57]
Patty made her choice to do 50 speaking engagements in 50 weeks at an incredibly challenging time in her life -- she was helping her mom get through cancer treatments, supporting her husband who'd lost his job, and raising two toddlers.
I was curious how making her choice gave her an element of control, and she responded that she'd never thought about it in that way, but looking back she now sees that stepping into that huge choice was exactly what she needed at the challenging time.
Should you listen or ignore your inner resistance? [00:09:39]
I went on to ask Patty about the transformations she experienced as a result of her choice and she shared her “aha” about a previously held belief regarding resistance. She used to believe that resistance is your soul telling you to slow down, but shifted her belief to acknowledge that sometimes resistance is your ego keeping you small. Listen in to her share the fastest way to break through that kind of resistance.
You already have what you need to succeed, and other lessons learned as a result of her choice. [00:27:25]
She shared that when she became an entrepreneur, she felt like she lacked the knowledge or skillset that other, more successful, entrepreneurs had. But after following through on her choice to speak 50 times in 50 weeks, she realized that she already had what she needed inside of her…
When I first made the choice to seek out others who’d made a choice that created a ripple effect, Pamela Wible, a family practitioner, was my first connection. She’d became disillusioned with the industrialization of the healthcare industry and assembly-line medical care and chose to create an ideal medical clinic where she could put the patient in charge.
Pamela Wible is a physician who was disgruntled with the traditional medical paradigm. She chose to follow her dream and asked her patients how they'd like to be treated. The results were her creating of an ideal medical clinic that is now inspiring other medical professionals and becoming a grassroots movement across the US.
“I’m opening a clinic that’ll be designed by you.” she told her patients. “Tell me what you want, tell me your wildest dreams.” And, they did. One hundred testimonies worth.
Pamela brought their dreams to life in the first ideal medical clinic in the US where she began providing her patients with a human scale experience. Her choice led to a movement where other doctors are applying her model to bring ideal medical care to their patients across the country.
Here are some snippets of our conversation and you can listen to the full podcast here.
What was it about your past medical jobs that caused you to feel disillusioned with the medical industry?
Over the years I worked in a variety of medical practices from a community health center to a multi-specialty group to a small private practice to a hospital-owned clinic and they were all assembly-line medicine – meet with a patient quickly and get them out the door to meet with the next. I hated the insanity of the medical system. No matter which job I had, it was too much for my soul to take. I was frustrated, as were my patients. I’m very creative, a great doctor and ready to go but the system destroyed my mental health and stole my soul and my dream.
What led you to make the choice to create an ideal medical clinic?
I was deeply depressed, frustrated and suicidal about ten years ago. The gift of being suicidal was that I could surrender because I didn’t care if I lived or died. It was incredibly painful to be a healer who couldn’t heal. I had a key moment of awakening when I realized that I didn’t have to do this by myself, I couldn’t solve this big problem on my own. So, I put the end user, my patients, in charge.
What did that look like for you?
I invited them to design their own medical clinic. I said “I’m opening an ideal medical clinic next month and it’ll be designed by you so tell me what you want. Tell me your wildest dreams.” And, they did. I got over a hundred pages of testimony and their resounding request was that they wanted a human scale experience. They wanted to be loved and nurtured by someone who felt like their mom but was a doctor. They wanted attention. Nothing they described was what we have now. No one asked for phone trees, or physician’s assistants, or being a number or having to deal with insurance cards.
Tell me more about what transpired after you made your choice and began your clinic.
As I had a healthier job, I could model healthy behavior. I’ve encouraged other doctors to open clinics, it’s becoming a movement. My clinic is like the underground railroad, it’s giving hope to other suffering doctors. They feel liberated and deserving of creating their own clinic, and to date there are over one hundred across the country. I’ve spoken a lot and developed a cult following with my grassroots efforts and now my goal is to really create a mass movement and a paradigm shift. I want ideal medical clinics to be the norm in the medical industry.
What are some of the challenges you encounter as you look to create a mass cultural movement?
It’s very challenging when doctors are disempowered. There’s a growing suicide rate amongst physicians and I’m bringing awareness of this issue into the light. People need to understand how hard it is for a doctor to deal with their pain of seeing suffering while working in a medical assembly line. The other issue is that people are apathetic. Just having the information doesn’t make them take action.
What are some of the actions you’re taking to get even greater visibility into your efforts?
Well, I speak all the time. I speak to medical students and get standing ovations. I now lead retreats where I teach doctors how to design their own clinics. I also educate doctors about the business side of medicine. Truth is I need a bigger following. I’ve created a ripple effect, I just need a giant wave.
Check out her TED talk.