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Achieving Optimal Physical Health with Sheila Brown · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  And it just depends on what's really going on in my own mind.
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  What am I trying to accomplish at the time?
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  And where do I want to go?
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  Hi.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady hosted the small bizchett podcast.
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  I want to serve you.
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  This pandemic has been so hard on America's small businesses and on just America in
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  general.
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  If you're ready to start your dream business, boy, do I have a great offer for you.
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  I am giving away 1000 copies of my best selling book.
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  Become your own boss in 12 months.
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  Over a hundred thousand people have this book.
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  It's been printed in multiple languages around the world, and I wanted to find a way to serve
• 0:40
  America's small businesses in this pandemic.
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  And so I am giving away a 1000 copies of my book.
• 0:46
  All you have to do to get your copy is head over to begin my biz.com/freeoffer to, you
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  know, sign up for your copy.
• 0:55
  All you have to do is pay shipping, and we will mail one out to you I am so excited about this.
• 1:00
  I wanna serve you.
• 1:01
  Grab your copy today.
• 1:03
  I left off.
• 1:05
  Ending small business failure.
• 1:07
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson, Well, Linda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the
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  information you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now Here's the small Biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  Small Biz lady.
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  Is number 1 small business expert, and I'd like to welcome you to the small biz chat podcast.
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  The small biz chat podcast has appeared to peer interview show They give small business owners
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  a way to get invaluable business advice.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
• 1:49
  The goal of the small business chat podcast is to give our small business audience the
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  opportunity to hear sage advice from multiple angles so that you can take your business to
• 2:00
  the next level.
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  Alright.
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  It is time for me to introduce my guest.
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  Her name is Sheila Brown, and she's gonna talk to all of us how we can achieve optimal
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  physical health.
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  She is on a mission to change common thinking around soul food and encourage people to
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  embrace the vegan lifestyle if only she could get me to give up bacon anyway She's a healthy
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  eating coach who helps her clients with their weight loss struggles and triumphs, and she
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  confronted her own issues with food, this spirituality that forced her to address anxiety
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  and issues she had in her own life.
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  She speaks with women and helps them to identify and address their own anxieties and
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  issues connected with food.
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  And their bodies.
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  And she's also the author of something raw, sometimes cooked, always divinely prepared 21
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  vegan dishes to inspire daughters of the most high to eat healthy.
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  Alright.
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  Sheila, how are you?
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  Thank you so much for being here on the small piece chef podcast.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  Thank you.
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  I am so delighted to be here with you.
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  Alright.
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  So tell me, how did you what how did you get into the health and wellness business?
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  What's mark your interest?
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  You know, it was something that occurred naturally.
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  I am not the likely kind of person to find myself being what I call a divine life
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  strategist and a divine health coach.
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  I am an attorney.
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  By trade, I've done strategic planning for behavioral health organizations.
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  I managed bookstore before that, but one of the things that kept reoccurring in my life that I
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  always kind of now looking back associated with the a tremendous amount of stress that I was
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  experiencing in my life.
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  Just trying to figure out business trying to figure out my next move, trying to figure out
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  parenting and balance at all was that I never put my health at the forefront.
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  It just wasn't even an issue for me.
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  I had no cognitive, relationship between myself, and the food that I was eating.
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  Everything was just go go go go go go and food weight.
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  Those were things that were on the back burner for me.
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  And I think the younger I was, it was okay to get away with it.
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  I kinda just, in the course of moving through life, was able to keep my energy up.
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  But as I got older and hit my late thirties, my early forties, and things started to become
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  more intense, with my body, I started to realize that wait a minute, not only am I over
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  £300.
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  I just wasn't even aware of it because I was always told and felt attractive in my clothing.
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  And I just didn't need to pay much attention to it, but I was also feeling symptoms that no
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  longer could be ignored.
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  I felt like I was having heart palpitations I was having these symptoms like a nagging pain
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  shoulder.
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  And, cumulatively, they were becoming so problematic for me, but I just couldn't ignore
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  it anymore.
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  And I ended up reaching out to someone for help.
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  And before experiencing that, I realized that, you know what?
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  Looking back at things, I was actually on the verge of a heart attack.
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  A lot of times women have the symptoms of a heart attack, and it appears in their shoulder
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  or in their arm.
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  I think it's particularly the left arm.
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  I was having this negative sensation.
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  And then I was always sweating profusely, even if I just got up to go to the restroom, I had
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  an extremely sedentary lifestyle.
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  And then one day something happened, I came to the conclusion that, you know, what?
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  This isn't just about looking good and close or not looking good and close anymore.
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  This is actually affecting my heart, my knees, my, you know, my arteries, everything was
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  screaming at me to pay attention to this important part of life.
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  It was the key to life itself, and it had a lot to do with my unhealthy relationship with food.
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  So, fast forward to 2016.
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  I'm at this point of no return, and I come across the documentary coop at sick and nearly
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  dead.
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  And I see this guy who's over £300 like me, and he goes through a 60 day juice fast.
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  And at the end of that 60 days, he comes off with £90.
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  And I said to myself, oh my god.
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  Is that all you have to do to lose £90.
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  Like, I can do that.
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  So, unfortunately, I had already had invested in a juicer.
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  I had talked with a health consultant who made me aware that I actually had some food
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  allergies.
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  And, I did a 60 day juice class.
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  I started it on March 21st or 22nd 2016 60 days later, I was £57 lighter 10 or 12, dress sizes
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  down.
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  And I felt like a whole new human being again, It just completely changed the way I did.
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  Now the 60 days, I didn't realize it, but I could actually be in vegan for 60 days.
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  And so the foods that I was choosing, which were pretty much just green foods, I began to
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  eat them.
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  I ate them raw, and I ate them cooked.
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  That's the name of my cookbook.
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  Sometimes raw.
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  Sometimes cooked always divinely prepared.
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  Now the divinely prepared piece comes in because there was a strong connection between
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  my sense of purpose, what I call divine purpose, and my sense of spirituality that I
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  started to not only associate with food but with weight and everything else that I was
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  doing.
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  So, I had realized that with all of the weight.
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  Not only did my energy come down, but my motivation came down.
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  I did not have the desire to confront and tackle life's challenges.
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  I didn't have a desire to express creativity, and I was just functioning in this kind of fog
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  that allowed me to just get up and go to work, come home, stuff myself over the weekend, and
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  just fall asleep into this kinda, like, coma until Monday, again, where I dreaded the entire
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  experience.
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  And so my decision to do something about it was first a huge challenge because of that 1st
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  weekend of my juice fast where I had to come, what they call it in the black community had
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  come to Jesus experience where I really, really had to confront the fact that I was either
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  going to come failed completely at life and died, or I was gonna overcome this unhealthy
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  relationship I had with food.
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  And it was the weekend for me that made all the difference because everything got silent over
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  the weekend.
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  During the week, the juicing was great.
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  I was moving around, working, going from one job to the next, you know, making moves, making
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  phone calls.
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  I didn't notice that I wasn't eating like usual, but the weekend came.
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  And with the weekend came, loneliness, silence and the realization that I was embarking on
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  something I had never attempted to do before.
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  And over the weekend, what I would normally do is just stuff myself, watch a movie, get in the
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  bed, and not really come out until this time to get my next scoop of food.
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  And I was kinda living this existence and not even realizing it.
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  But when I went to do my normal habit, which didn't involve a lot of creativity or movement
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  for me.
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  I instantly realized that, wait a minute, I've got a problem.
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  If I think I'm gonna get through this night without being able to have popcorn and ice
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  cream and yogurt and soda, And I had a nervous breakdown that night.
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  If anyone had witnessed it, it probably would have looked like to an outsider that I was
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  having.
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  Out of body experience with a demonic spirit.
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  I mean, it was just really, really bad for me.
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  It was shaking.
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  It was crying.
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  It was this loneliness that I realized I never had to confront before because I could popcorn
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  it away with with a sound of popcorn, with a crunch of popcorn, it was like a conversation
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  that I didn't have to have in my head.
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  I had, you know, the kiss of a yogurt to romanticize me into almost a sexual experience
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  with the chocolate that could compensate for anything that smooth kiss with yogurt or ice
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  cream couldn't compensate.
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  And I had the savoriness of spicy foods.
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  And then I realized that I created a habit out of cooking, but it really wasn't a desire to be
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  cooking.
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  It was a desire or a need to constantly be finding ways to justify the eating that I was
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  doing.
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  And so When I did that weekend through the Juice Pass, the only thing that allowed me to
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  succeed was my me drawing on my strategic planning experiencing.
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  And being able to visualize myself achieving the outcome, right, which is something that I
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  used to do with my clients.
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  And and realizing that weight, Sheila.
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  Remember that £90, that's on the other side of this.
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  I'm just talking myself through that.
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  But it was, like, you know, how you have that, since that there's a demon on one side and a
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  god on the other side It was a pool, and I was in a fight for my life.
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  And out of it, I realized I'm not the only one going through this.
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  I'm not the only one dealing with loneliness at a spiritual, mental, financial, economic,
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  political, and social levels.
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  And so I began to find other women who were situated much like me, which was a lot of women
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  that I found from the African American experience But women from a a ride, a range of
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  experiences were going through something similar.
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  And so out of those things, I started paying attention and collecting data about my own
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  experiencing, codifying it, and analyzing those experiencing experiences, and then I actually
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  created a course about how to overcome emotional eating and how to switch to a vegan
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  diet and how to, you know, incorporate more vegetables and fruit in your diet, even if
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  being vegan isn't the desired outcome that you have.
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  So it was really drawing on my own personal experiences with spirituality and with
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  strategic planning.
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  And with my desire to live beyond where I was and do better.
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  And out of it, there came that sense of divine purpose.
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  Like, wait a minute.
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  Now that I've got all this energy, I've gotta do something with it again.
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  And, you know, my first book came out of it, DVD Soup.
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  Which is where I wanted to incorporate a more soulful experience with my food.
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  It was okay initially to just, you know, steam some vegetables and juice, but then there was
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  this, my grandma's soul food, you know, kitchen experience that I was missing out on.
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  And so I took what I knew about health and nutrition at that point and combined it with
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  some things that I had learned about how to make my food savory, how to replace the pork
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  with the smoky essence using, natural ingredients and herbs and spices and all these
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  other little tricks And so I took all of those things that I learned, combine them into my
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  first free ebook, which I call a divinity suit, an ancestor inspired recipes, starring collard
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  greens, which is a staple in the black community collard greens, And I just, you know,
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  went on from there and started talking with people, getting radio, communications with
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  people, and people were just interested in my story.
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  And I just eventually wrote a year later, my first book, which was sometimes raw, sometimes
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  cooked, always divinely prepared, which was basically allowing me to show people what I did
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  on a daily basis with my food, with recipes, to take my £300 body down £135.
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  And then finally figure out what was the right weight because there was so many things that
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  had changed about my body.
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  Over that, I guess, 18 year period where I gained so much weight.
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  Things had changed.
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  My bone structure had changed.
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  And so what I thought was my desired weight was no longer suitable for me.
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  So I found my my happy weight, my more, suitable weight from my body, And then I just
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  said, okay.
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  Well, how do I maintain that with movies?
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  And so I wrote that book to show the recipes that sustain me, that keep me going.
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  And they're gluten free.
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  They're vegan, but they're delicious.
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  And so, some of them are keto friendly.
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  Like, I have an amazing keto friendly bread.
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  I have some chocolate chip cookies.
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  I have a whole bunch of great things.
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  So that's kind of the journey for me of how things got started, and it's been such a
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  journey from there.
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  So it's more spiritual and mental for me, but it's it's just a great and joyous experience
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  when I do find people who want to know what I did and how they can start the journey, to what
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  I call divine health as well.
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  Wow.
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  You have really given me so much.
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  There's so many questions I wanted to ask you, and you hit, like, everything.
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  But so I do wanna ask you though about how you maintain it And what do you do with people like
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  me that are, like, addicted to bacon?
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  You know, what I wanted to ask you about was What about the dieting?
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  Like, are you do you believe in Keto?
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  Like, is that okay?
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  Or, you know, or are you really or or you really just kinda like, no.
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  Everybody just needs to eat healthy.
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  You know, the diet thing just like kinda doesn't work, or is it really is about you
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  really have to change your whole lifestyle.
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  You know, that's a loaded question.
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  And I have, like, 3 different approaches to that question, but I would love to take the
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  segment, but we don't have a time for it.
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  But what I will say is that all diets work.
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  Really, they all do, but they don't work well for everybody.
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  Right?
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  So in my journey, I've done some keto, and then I've done some intermittent fasting.
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  And then I've done some while I'm always doing vegan.
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  But, you know, I've done different things and variations of different things, and it just
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  depends on What's really going on in my own mind?
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  What am I trying to accomplish at the time?
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  And where do I want to go?
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  So For example, Keto is great, but it's not a long term solution.
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  It's something that you can do for a period of time.
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  Patience is a virtue, but it is not a finite virtue.
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  Meaning, it's not it's a finite virtue.
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  It's not something that you can do infinitely.
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  So you can do raw foods for a period.
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  You can do cooked foods for a period.
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  But you can't do everything 100% for the rest of your time.
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  So the key is what are you trying to accomplish And what, combination of tools, because all of
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  these are tools, veganism is a tool.
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  Like, I know people that they go in and out of between vegan and vegetarian and a combination
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  of Mediterranean.
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  It just depends.
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  You want to keep it interesting.
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  You want to be consistent with your values.
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  So a person who, you know, has a a moral position against eating animals.
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  That's kind of like what I call a spiritual disposition.
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  So theirs is gonna be a little bit more narrow than someone who still doesn't mind eating
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  eggs, but wants to dabble in and out of it.
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  So it's some combination of things And what I tend to do is keep people on a cycle where you
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  keep things fresh.
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  So I do what I call a 3 day reboot with divinity soup.
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  So every 30 days, I get women to take the 1st 3 days.
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  I say women, but it'd be men and women.
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  I usually my clients tend to be women.
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  But, every 1st 3 days, I tell my clients to do something very simple, detoxify your body,
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  refresh your taste buds and find a way to re acclimate yourself to your goals.
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  And what people tend to do is say at the beginning of the year, I'm gonna lose £100, and
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  I'm gonna keep it off.
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  And then by the end of January, they've completely forgotten everything I've just said.
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  Right?
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  So they I think the solution to that is is to work on a cyclical basis in short term.
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  So if you decided to do a quarterly and reassess your goals or even monthly, which I
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  have found during the pandemic to be more conducive for me is, okay, every 30 days, I'm
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  going to reset my taste buds.
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  I'm gonna do what I I call something called, reestablish food humility.
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  Which is basically something that happens when people get food arrogance.
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  So my solution to food arrogance is food humility.
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  And doing my cycle every 30 days allows me to get back to that place where, I don't need to
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  have Italian today.
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  Chinese tomorrow, like Ethiopian on the next day.
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  Right?
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  It really there's food in my refrigerator or food in your refrigerator that gets satisfy
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  your needs, but you become so arrogant about food that you think that you have to have so
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  much variety.
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  And so doing that 12 month cycle of eating and reassessing your goals and your health goals
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  and realigning your taste buds allows you to come right back to your center and say, I'm so
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  blessed to have this food.
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  I'm going to eat what I have in my refrigerator.
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  So, yes, veganism, intermittent fasting, you know, whatever your goal is, There's some ways
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  that you can work around it.
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  As long as they're realistic, they're short term, and they're you have a way of assessing
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  the success of it.
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  And that's really just about collecting data.
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  And I think doing that every 30 days is a great way to do it.
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  So I'm not opposed to diets but I think I'd like to call it a lifestyle assessment as
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  opposed to diet.
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  I just think that the term diet is kind of a negative connotation.
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  If you think about what it is you're trying to accomplish with with your body and how does
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  that align with you for filling your purpose and, like, then everything else seems to fall
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  in line.
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  And that's more of a lifestyle than it is a diet.
• 20:22
  Alright.
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  How can people get in touch with you if they want to get more information about your, vegan
• 20:27
  transformation?
• 20:29
  My website is shelahbrownspeaks.com.
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  I am on Instagram and Facebook by lean more heavily towards Instagram.
• 20:37
  So that's the quickest way to reach me in my handle is at Sheila Brown Speaks.
• 20:42
  And that's sheila Brown
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  speaks.
• 20:47
  Awesome.
• 20:47
  Awesome.
• 20:47
  Well, thank you so much.
• 20:48
  You've given me so much information.
• 20:50
  My head is spinning about this, but I wanna read your book and and and learn even more
• 20:55
  about this because All of us, busy business owners can do better with our food.
• 21:00
  I'm pretty sure all of us can can do more.
• 21:03
  Alright, Sheila.
• 21:04
  What's your favorite podcast?
• 21:05
  Well, I love your podcast, and aside from yours, I love Yuri's podcast.
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  She is a great show for, spiritual entrepreneurs.
• 21:15
  Awesome.
• 21:16
  Awesome.
• 21:16
  I've heard of her podcast too.
• 21:17
  I I like her podcast.
• 21:19
  Sheila, what's your favorite app?
• 21:20
  I don't see Calendly.
• 21:22
  To help you schedule your appointments and things like that.
• 21:25
  It's pretty cool.
• 21:26
  It's a good one.
• 21:27
  It's a good one.
• 21:28
  What is your favorite old school marketing tip?
• 21:32
  I don't know how popular it is, but I guess it's kind of like do what you can and allow the
• 21:39
  chips to fall where they may.
• 21:41
  Okay.
• 21:41
  I
• 21:41
  don't know who's responsible for saying that.
• 21:46
  We'll go with it.
• 21:47
  I'll take it.
• 21:48
  We'll just say the anonymous.
• 21:49
  How about that?
• 21:50
  Alright.
• 21:51
  Alright, Sheila.
• 21:52
  What's your favorite business book?
• 21:54
  This is gonna sound weird because I'm always referencing this.
• 21:58
  As an attorney, but it's called the complete executor's guide.
• 22:03
  And it's just like a lawyer kinda thing, like, for me helping people with your state planning
• 22:08
  and stuff.
• 22:09
  I'm always Richard rebring to that book.
• 22:12
  Listen.
• 22:13
  I'm not mad.
• 22:14
  Whatever works.
• 22:15
  My favorite business book is when I read 2 years ago in the middle of pandemic.
• 22:19
  Disrupt you by Jay Samitt is is one of my very favorite books.
• 22:23
  I have Benny, but that's one of my that I that I'm super referring to people right now.
• 22:29
  Listen, thank you all for joining me for this episode of the small biz chat podcast.
• 22:33
  If you're still working on your digital pivot, be sure to grab my new book become your own
• 22:37
  boss in 12 months, revise and expand it.
• 22:40
  I've got all of the great stuff in there that you need, like, how to sell on Amazon, how to
• 22:46
  buy ads and how to develop the sales process.
• 22:49
  You can get your copy today.
• 22:51
  Head over to become your own boss book dotcom, and I've got some amazing bonuses over there.
• 22:57
  Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the small business chat podcast.
• 23:02
  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
• 23:06
  I'm Melinda Emerson, small business lady, your host.
• 23:08
  Until next time, remember this.
• 23:10
  You never lose in business, either you win or you've learned.
• 23:13
  Good night, everybody.
• 23:16
  Thank you for listening to the small biz chat podcast.
• 23:19
  With Melinda Emerson.
• 23:21
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit podcast wherever you listen
• 23:30
  to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.