23.5 million people have autoimmune disease in the United States.*  Many suffer a long time when they don't have to...

...Kirstin addresses that head on in this episode.

Autoimmune disorders occur when our body’s immune system mistakenly attacks internal organs, healthy cells and tissues. The red blood cells(RBCs) and white blood

cells(WBCs) play important roles in this process.

There are over 80 different types of autoimmune diseases.

Inflammation is a major factor to get under control and your gut health is key.

Common autoimmune diseases:

Rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes (blood sugar levels), Crohn's disease, graves' disease and systemic lupus erythematosus. 

Autoimmune disease symptoms:

Fever to joint pain and swelling, shortness of breath, chest pains, skin rashes, swelling of the lymph nodes, weight loss abdominal pain, numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, changes in skin color or texture, dry mouth and dry eyes, muscle weakness, extreme fatigue.

Are autoimmune conditions genetic or environmental?

It's believed to be both often times for unknown reasons. Regarding genetics,

no one gene is believed to be the cause, rather it's a combination of genetics

and other risk factors tied to the environment.

Environmental factors that put some at

a higher risk:

Stress, lack of sunlight or Vitamin D, infections, hormonal changes or

exposure to certain chemicals.

This show is personal to me and may be to you too.

On a very personal level, this episode is incredibly important to me as my wife was

diagnosed with Sjogren’s autoimmune 3 years ago.  With Sjogren’s, the immune system attacks the mucous membranes – dry eye and dry mouth were early indicators for my wife along with fatigue.  On the podcast , I share how her hair doctor was the one to figure out she had an autoimmune issue, not a rheumatologist.

In my conversation with Kirstin, it’s almost like I could hear my wife Jenny speaking

as Kirstin shared her journey.  We talk about how difficult it was for both

Kirstin and my wife to find out what the root issue was they were struggling

with. We go deep on that.

Then the larger issue is, how do you address it? The answer to that question explains why this very episode exists and so many suffer despite real life changing options that work.

3 takeaways from this episode of Close The Deal .Com Podcast: 

• You’re not alone  - Kirstin explains the 3 areas she helps people with
• You have real treatment options that can reverse the symptoms
• There is hope - if you want it.

Wondering – Presence of an  autoimmune disease?

The key with autoimmune is to pay attention to the symptoms to avoid disease

progression.

If ignored too long or neglected, related disorders may pair up with the original.  If you recognize a change in your nervous system or believe you have similar symptoms to those listed above, the best way to mitigate issues it to get with your health care provider as soon as possible. Diagnostic criteria may include certain symptoms, blood tests and physical examination results.

Connect with Kirstin

Nourish123.com/heal

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstincarey/

Products we ❤️

Athletic Greens (AG1)

*The U.S Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) is the federal governing body over the National Institute of Health. NIH is an excellent resource for statistics, risk factors and potential treatment options. Visit www.nih.gov or call NIH Information Center at 1-888-NIH-INFO (1-888-644-4636)

Show Notes with Kirstin Carey

[00:00:00] Kirstin Carey: So, when I started having more of these issues, I wasn't connecting them cuz the doctors weren't connecting them. It was like, oh well you just have hormone issues. Take this pill. Oh, you just have migraines. Oh, that's kind of normal. And so, all the pieces weren't being put together. They were looking at them as if they were separate puzzles.

Ewell Smith: Skin issues that I didn't get until I was in my adulthood. Like I didn't have skin issues as a so they were just, putting that together and saying, take this issue, or take this medication, or let's do this test, let's do this invasive scope. And nobody was putting all the pieces together, but nobody also was really giving me any diagnosis.

Ewell: That is Kirstin Carey. She became a certified holistic nutritionist out of necessity, out of survival once she was diagnosed with an autoimmune issue. Once she was diagnosed, she couldn't find the help that she needed and she went on a quest. And this episode has special importance to me because my wife has an autoimmune issue.

Kirsten provides hope and a pathway. And if you've got a loved one relative or yourself in your battling autoimmune, this episode is for you. Kirstin is the CEO and the founder of Nourish.

Now you're listening to the Close The Deal.com Podcast. I'm your host, Ewell Smith, and normally we're talking about sales and marketing and entrepreneurship, and I often say sales and marketing are perishable skills.

Well, so is our health. And our health comes first. And the skill of taking care of our health is also perishable if we're not intentional about it. In this episode is so important to kick off 2023, our first episode for the year because without our health, nothing else matters. Right now, let's begin the show.

Kirstin, I want to welcome you to Close The Deal.com Podcast. Where are you today? Where are you calling from?

Kirstin: I am in right outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

Ewell: One question before we get started.

[00:02:01] Kirstin: Yeah.

Ewell: What are you grateful for who or what are you grateful for? Helped you get to where you are today?

Oh, so many things. I'm grateful for my parents. I'm grateful for my, my former husband because I had to learn a whole lot to get out of that relationship. Uh, I'm grateful to my current husband, but I'm, I'm grateful to pretty much all of the educators I've come across because I've learned something and I, I consider pretty much most people that come into my life, an educator at sub level.

Ewell: That's great to always keep that open mind, right? Because you can always learn something from somebody. So that's what we're hearing about today. So, you have identified a problem in the marketplace and you saw an opportunity and you came up with a solution.

Tell us what the problem was that you saw a need to solve.

Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis are considered two of the most common forms of autoimmune disorders

Kirstin shares her two disorders to help others understand they are not alone.

Kirstin: The problem is the need to solve the health issues. If people really want to heal from whatever they're dealing with and not just learn to live with it. And, you know, I was told, you know, I found out I had Celiac disease and Hashimoto’s and I was told, well, this is just the way it is and you need to learn to live with it and just manage the damage.

[00:03:08] And I was like that doesn't sound right to me. So, I ended up going back to for nutrition and then some all additional degrees and education to learn how to not just live with what I've got to actually stop it in its tracks and reverse it and then heal from the damage that was done from it.

Ewell: So, then you decide to, you recognize that's a problem for you, but others probably shared same issues, right? And you came up with a solution. And what is the solution you offer to the marketplace today?

Kirstin uses a 3 pronged strategy to help reverse autoimmune symptoms

Kirstin: Yeah. So, in a nutshell, we have a program that teaches people how to take the chronic illness disease, autoimmune is, is a lot of what we see, but how do you take the issue that you're having, that you've been told, this is just the way it is. You have to suck it up and walk it off, and that's just it.

And how do you actually truly heal from it? So, from a nutritional standpoint. So, from the food if there's any supplementation that may work into, and also like movement or working out like that to us is nutrition. Then there's what we call the science end of it, which is more of the labs and the scientific support on what's really going on in the body.

So, you have measurable results and then what we call, what I call the soul part of it. That's the emotional healing component that leads to whether you heal or whether you stay stuck. So, we take the emotional, mental, physical, and we roll it all into one and come at it from a cohesive standpoint. So, you're not trying to pull all these pieces from all these different parts.

You're putting that puzzle piece together, puzzle pieces together for you, for your unique puzzle.

Ewell: How do you help the person do that? How do you, where do you begin with someone to.

Kirstin: So, we do come at it from all three prongs at the same time. So, I have an entire team now that work with me. My husband's one of them. After I got sick, he ended up also going back to school to learn a lot of this stuff too, because we just, were not finding answers. So, he's much more the science end.

We're, we're both nutritionists board certified, but he. Went down the rabbit hole of more of the science end. So, he's gets into the clinical stuff, the lab interpretation, all of that. He's a certified person trainer, so he gets into those components. I then went down the rabbit hole of seeing more about the emotional trauma healing component and how our body emotionally shows up and how that can help us in the healing side or actually be part of, or the cause of the issues that we're dealing with.

And then the two of us come together on nutrition. So, we really look at all three components at the same time, and then we help you build a cohesive plan for your unique issues so we understand what your backstory is, what's going on with you emotionally. Where are the blocks that you have put up in front of yourself?

Like, where are the defense mechanisms that you created to stop yourself from feeling a certain emotional pain, dealing with a trauma? I know as a kid I was taught how to compartmentalize really. , you don't feel, feels, you just push 'em to the side and you call them taken care of. Well, they fester eventually, and they become things, they turn into symptoms, they turn into problems.

So, how do you see those things when you purposely hit them from yourself? And then how do you rewire that part of your system so that you're no longer in that traumatic stage or triggering into that traumatic stage? How do you dissolve that? And we help you understand what those things are.

You uncover them and then we understand what's the right diet for you right now. Cause what may work for you today may not work for you six months from now. Six years from now. So how do you learn how to adjust that? And then we take all of the lab components and we we're not huge fans of doing thousands and thousands of dollars of labs.

Forget the magic unicorn - a real world tested approach

What we found is a lot of practitioners are out there looking for the magic unicorn, where we'd rather find the brown horse. That's really the biggest problem. And let's take care of the biggest pieces. Cause a lot of times those pieces take care of the unicorn. Tiny little issue. Let's not spend all this time and effort on that.

Let's just take care of the basics. Cuz if you get the foundation right, your body has what it needs to actually heal, even if you do have some of those tinier issues that are harder to find. So, we come at it from all. Finding the right solution for the person in the state that they're in or in the place that they're in?

[00:07:07] Ewell: So, when you found out that you were diagnosed with the autoimmune issues, what was the raw feeling? I mean, was it just fear or was it like, okay, what does this mean? What does this mean for my life going the next five years, 10 years? How does this affect my family? I mean, there's got to be a, a range of emotions 

Cause I've gone through that with my wife having her tell me while I was away that she had an autoimmune issue. 

But, you know, when you first learned about this, did you even think that, okay, at some point I'm going to figure out. Educate people in this way, that stage, you're probably just like, okay, what do I do? Right? How do I deal with this?

Kirstin: I mean, I wasn't the kid who dressed up as a nutritionist for Halloween, right? Like, that wasn't what I wanted to be when I grew So, you know, I was an athlete, a former gymnast, a softball player, and that was my life. And I stayed healthy by doing all that. And I thought I was eating healthy.

So, when I started having more of these issues, I wasn't connecting them cuz the doctors weren't connecting them. It was like, oh well you just have hormone issues. Take this pill. Oh, you just have migraines. Oh, that's kind of normal. And so, all the pieces weren't being put together. They were looking at them as if they were separate puzzles.

[00:08:15] Kirstin: Skin issues that I didn't get until I was in my adulthood. Like I didn't have skin issues as a so they were just, putting that together and saying, take this issue, or take this medication, or let's do this test, let's do this invasive scope. And nobody was putting all the pieces together, but nobody also was really giving me any diagnosis.

I finally switched over into more natural medicine and was struggling there too, because I was getting a lot of supplements given to me, and so I wasn't getting answers there until finally one doctor said. Let, let's look into Celiac cuz I had a lot of the other stereotypical things that kind of lead you to that.

First relief knowing the autoimmune diagnosis, then frustration

So, she did the test and she said, hey, you have celiac disease. And honestly my first thought was, thank you. Like I knew something was wrong. I told you something. I was, I was kind of validated and kind of excited about this. Cause I also had doctors telling you it was in my head and giving me anti-anxiety medication.

I'm like, I'm not anxious, I'm sick. Something's not.

[00:09:06] Ewell: now you

Kirstin: So, I felt right now I'm like, oh, good. I had a name. We can do something, right? Like I'm a very tactile, let's move through this kind of girl. 

Ewell: Yes, 

Kirstin: And I did the gluten-free thing. I started researching on what autoimmune disease really was, but I didn't really get that much better, and that's when I started getting scared because if I had the magic answer of you have celiac disease, you don't include in all of its better. And I wasn't seeing the results. In fact, I started gaining more weight. And as a former gymnast that was really frightening to me cuz I couldn't stop it. So now I'm getting 20, 30 pounds and I have a tiny frame, so that seems very obvious.

My skin was getting worse. I got to a point where I was, I didn't even want to leave the house cause my skin was so bad. So, I was mortified. And my job, what I did, I owned a company where I stood on a platform and talked to hundreds of people about sales and marketing strategies. So now I'm very public and very obviously, you know, not. And my clothes didn't fit and all of this stuff. So, I kind of went into a spin out at that point into a little bit of a depression on what am I going to do here? Cause I also was exhausted. I was traveling. I couldn't keep all my thoughts together cause I had so much foggy brain. And I finally did what I typically do.

Beating autoimmune disease is about survival

I backed up the story and I said, well, I can't get an answer. The doctors are pretty much shrugging their shoulders and saying, this is the best you can. And I said, well, this is, this is nonsense. And that's when I decided that there had to be more. So, I was going to go back to school and it, the time it wasn't, I'm going to go back to school cause I'm going to teach everybody else how to do this.

It was like a survival because I knew if I felt that bad in my early thirties, I, I didn't think I was going to make it to my fifties.

So it was, it was straight survival. So, I went back into one nutrition school, graduated there, knew I wanted deeper information, and then I went to a, an additional, certification program that was just amazing.

And then I started learning that there was more to the emotional components. there are too few people who understand that this isn't just the rest of your life. You can actually do something about this.

 Ewell: All right, Kirsten, we're going to come right back to you in just a second. Folks, hang on here. We're going to go deeper on the why, and she's going to explain how she got into this business that she just described to you. And also, I'm going to talk about a little bit about my wife and why this conversation is so real to me as a husband.

Watching my wife heal through the same things that Kirsten's going to be talking about here in just a second. 

Keeping theme with the show, you've heard me talk about AG1. I take this product every single morning. It takes care of 75 minerals and vitamins for me in a very easy way, with a powder in eight ounces of water. And I'm good to go out the door to the gym just like that. Check it out. Close the deal.com.

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We're here to be a partner with you, a growth partner with you, and we use a process called the C T D Story Sales Sequence, which brings your customer through the sales funnel process to close the deal. We help you close more deal, generate more leads, so check it out, close the deal.com and there'll be some information and you'll be speaking with me directly if you choose to work with us.

Look forward to talking to you now, back to the show.

Kirsten, welcome back. So, you went through an emotional range. I'm going to, can I share with you real quick what my wife went through so my wife called me.

 2 rheumatologists could not answer a simple question about nutrition

I was working up in North Carolina. I was commuting back and forth, but I had a, I had about a month long stretch when she called to let me know her hair had been falling out for a few years and she couldn't figure out why. At the same time, she was exhausted . She was starting to have hard time thinking, uh, brain fog, and she didn't understand what was going on, but she went to the hair doctor who had given her medicine in the past, but this time her hair was starting to really fall out and she was really getting anxious about that.

And under the, the doctor's breath, she was, look, the doctor was looking at the charts and she said, I wonder if this is Sjogren's. And my wife's like, and she's like, I think you may have Sjogren's. I want to send you to an eye doctor of all things. Because dry eye is a typical sign of Sjogren's is dry eye.

So, you would've thought you would've gone to a rheumatologist? No, she went to an eye doctor next. The eye doctor, sure enough tested for dry eye. Well guess what? She has dry eye. Then she went to the rheumatologist. And I'm going to share this part of the story with you, which I think you'll find painful and also.

Not surprising either 

[00:14:21] Kirstin: Too familiar. 

Ewell: So, my wife goes to the first rheumatologist while I'm still out of. Let me, let me back up. I knew there was hope from the very first phone call like you, once you knew what it was, it's like, okay, I could identify with that. Right? My wife, when she knew what it was, she could identify with it and she started doing research and she came across Venus Williams was diagnosed in 2011 and, and what people may not realize is Venus Williams was literally bedridden from exhaustion and her.

Turned it around such that she was able to get back on the court and compete competitively. When my wife realized that story, and she told that to me when I heard that, I knew there was hope right then.

[00:15:07] Kirstin: right.

Ewell: Cause I knew my wife would dig in and figure it out just like you did.

So, my wife goes to the first rheumatologist. All he wants to do is give her a pill that can potentially cause blind.

So, my wife's like, I'm not doing that. I came home, she's like, I want you to go with me to the rheumatologist. I go with her to the rheumatologist and the doctor; my wife is getting more and more frustrated cause she's not talking about anything about other than giving her a pill.

She's like, uh, can you tell me how I can do this in other ways? Nutrition, whatever. And he had a go-to answer. This is a funny story. It was a true. When I was in grad school, I mean divert for a second, just a second. When I was in grad school, I had an internship with the Small Business Development Center, and my job was to teach people how to do a business plan to start a business.

I have no idea how to tell somebody how to start a business. I always kind of fudged my way through these interviews with people, but when , my backwards against the wall, my go-to answer was, well, I've got a brochure I can give to you. When my wife was pushing that doctor for information, his response was, I've got a brochure.

And when he said that, I'm like, he knows absolutely nothing,

Kirstin: like

[00:16:28] Ewell: And then my wife went on a quest very similar to yours. Now you have taken your journey and your frustration and all the anguish that goes with this process, and now you are trying to help others, I think it's important for people to know your why behind this and why you want to help others.

Kirstin: Well, the idea that there had to be more of a purpose to why this happened for me, cuz I later ended up with Hashimoto’s on top of it. And once you have one autoimmune disease, the chances are very high you end up with more because it's the immune system attacking you, not there's something wrong with your thyroid or something wrong with your gut, or something wrong with your eyes or your tear ducts.

The Immune system is confused

The problem is your immune system is misunderstanding. That you are not the enemy. So, when you hear doctors say, well, your immune system's just overactive, that's, we don't see it that. We see that your immune system's doing its job, it's just confused about what it's supposed to be protecting and what it's supposed to be attacking.

Kirstin's  purpose bubbles up

So, if you can calm the immune system down and retrain it and say, Hey, this is the good part. We want to leave this and we don't want to attack it, you realign back to self or you realign back to purpose and who you are. So, for me, I had to realign back to who I really was, why I was going through this, what message my body was telling me, and what I was here to do, and what I really feel that I was led to do.

Learn this. One of my superpowers is I can learn things very quickly and be able to break them down and be able to educate people very quickly on pretty difficult subjects a lot of the times, but put it in place where now I can figure out the pattern or I can figure out a process to fix something. So, I said, Hey, I think this is what my, my purpose here is.

So, my husband then went back to school. The two of us sat down and we really put this together and said, but what are all the pieces? How do we put them together for each individual and how do we help everybody else not go through the hell that I went through? Not spend the $25,000 out of pocket that I spent trying to figure it out, not including school, not including all the other stuff, and not getting any better.

Ewell: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:28] Kirstin: So how do I help find a shortcut, create a shortcut, a proven process to help other people not have to go through? Because I don't think we should all have to go back to school in order to not die.

Ewell: You know, you brought up a really good point. You spent a lot of money trying to figure it out. A lot of people walk through life and never figure this out. They don't, they're not paying attention. I mean, my wife may not have paid attention to it, had her hair not been fallen out. That was such a traumatic experience, and it was such a visual thing.

She, you know, nobody wants to lose their hair, and that was her wake up call. Then she didn't, she really, she dismissed. I guess my point is she dismissed the, But that was the big symptom. So, she really wasn't, she was just kind of living with the dry eye, just like, okay, I'll go buy some drops.

[00:19:12] Kirstin: It's just the way it is. I'm getting older, I'll Yeah, right. I'll just buy the drop. This is just what happens and we're led to believe that we are just on a path, regardless of who we are. We're just eventually going to end up with some sort of issue disease. We're getting older. This is what happens, which is nonsense.

That's actually not the way it's supposed to be.

Ewell: No, and this is the part I want people to hear. Understand is I knew, gosh, talking to you. I can hear my wife in my head as you, as you're speaking, and you're smiling here. I knew my wife would get better because of her determination and what this, this is three years ago, two and a half years ago.

Today my wife is fine. She caught it early enough too, cuz you mentioned something else early that a lot of times one autoimmune leads to a second, she caught it and she, she does not have a second autoimmune issue yet and be because she was determined and it all came back to her nutrition and how she was.

Kirstin's first solution to help others was stress free- NOT

The gut health, keeping the inflammation at bay. All those things work. So, what I'm saying is there's hope. Right? There's hope, and, and that's what you all bring. Now you all didn't start online. You all kind of went a little zigzag to get to online. 

[00:20:27] Kirstin: So funny story. I decided to go back to school for nutrition. And again, I, I'm not someone who does things small, so I thought, well, I'm having difficulty eating out because gluten and dairy free, which we hundred percent recommend gluten and dairy free for anyone who's dealing with any autoimmune related thing.

 It was really hard to eat out, and one of the challenges I was having is I just didn't feel. You know, I couldn't go out. So, to fix the problem, I decided to open a restaurant that was the first, actually gluten-free restaurants in Arizona.

 I'd own businesses in other areas before I thought, how hard could it be? Um, I did learn very quickly. It was not the easiest business, but I opened up the first restaurant and. we started, started learning even more because then I became a chef running a commercial kitchen using my own recipes and learning how to commercialize.

[00:21:12] Kristin: I then brought in an executive chef who then helped me with the rest of the other openings. But what we started doing is because I was certified as a holistic nutritionist, I was allowed to do certain labs. And one of the labs that we were doing were food sensitivity labs, figuring out which foods specifically were working against people, and then what we would do locally.

 Is, I've kind of flipped the restaurant business over on its side because the, all the concept of restaurants is just silly. Like people come in, they decide what they want, they pay you after they're done. I mean, it's just a, a silly business strategy. So, I said, well, how do we make money flow better into this business?

And how do we help our clients who need this more? Cause the people who were flocking to us, of course for people who had food issues and back in 2010. Nobody was really doing the gluten free thing the way that we're doing it now. So, a whole restaurant dedicated to it was, was eye opening. People were having their weddings there.

I mean, it was fantastic. So, what we did is we took the food sensitivity tests, I created the meal plans for people as far as what they should be eating, and then my chefs would make the food based on their specific food allergies and sensitivities. They would then come in two or three days a week and pick up those foods based on what we had them doing.

So, I control over how they were getting their food, which was helping them get better faster. And they didn't have to worry about making the food themselves. So, as we started growing that way, people outside of the area were coming through and saying, well, you can you ship it to us? Can you? So, we were looking into that, which also became a challenge.

But then I also started doing stuff. Cause my backstory is I was a professional speaker and, and. For years, and I was on the national board for the National Speakers Association for many years, so I was doing teleconferences before teleconferences were. Known and I started doing online things, teaching people.

Kirstin transitions to ZOOM early on

So, I said, well, maybe we can help people outside of the area by doing a lot of our work over Zoom. And Zoom wasn't popular at that time either. So, in 2014 we started doing that. In 2017, we decided to take the entire course, everything that we were doing with people completely online. Cause even people in the area were like, Hey, this is great.

I don't have to travel to see you at all. I can do everything. So even our meetings, our one-on-one meetings, our lab meetings, they were all being done over Zoom.

So, 2017 we went a hundred percent, got rid of the office space, minimized the restaurant space, and then eventually sold the restaurants off in 2018 before Covid, which actually worked totally in my favor. Um, and then after Covid, more and more people wanted to do things on Zoom anyway, so our business got even better because more people were looking for practitioners they could work with. And now because we can do labs, we have all the certifications to do labs outside of the country.

We work with people in Canada, we work with people in the UK, we work with people, obviously all over the United States.

Kirstin shares how she marketed her business getting started

Ewell: How did you get the word out? It's easy to get the word out in a small community and people, you know, they get to know you really by word of mouth and. You know, that helps naturally going online. That had to be an interesting and you have a marketing background, so I'm cur I'm just curious I like to look at this from the, the problem that you're solving, but also you have to let people know how to find out about you so you can help solve their problem.

[00:24:22] So for the listeners and entrepreneurs out there who might be experiencing a problem they want to help solve and help other people.

How did you get the word out? 

Kirstin: I, would speak at any conference it had anything to do with the type of people who we were looking for. And since I have a speaking background, that was easy for me. So, anyone who attracted the type of client. Most of our clients are women. Most of our clients are 35 to 55. Most of our clients are moms.

There's kind of a similar thread. That doesn't mean we can't work with men. That doesn't mean we can't work with people outside of those, but these were the types of people we, they tended to be go-getters A type personalities. So, any business group I would speak to that were women centric as well. I would speak to anybody online, offline.

I would travel places to speak. So, all of that standard stuff. But I also then started getting more into Facebook groups. I did a decent amount of Facebook advertising before the iOS shift. We have since switched back over to, um, and I developed a pretty decent email. So, my email list was in the thousands, so that helped too.

[00:25:20] Kirstin: So, I was doing a lot of that traditional email marketing. We also now use, uh, we have a YouTube channel. We have an Instagram account now. Basically, any platform that my audience was attracted, we got on it. So, all of the pieces and we play around still with some advertising, but I don't do a lot of it.

Ewell: So, if the nuts and bolts of it was grassroots, who's getting on stage and 

Kirstin: Where are my people? Let me go talk to them. And frankly, we don't need millions of clients, right? Like, I'm not, we're very specific about who the right kind of client is. So, we've worked with several hundred people over the time, but we don't need millions of people. 

Kirstin's mindset drives her

Ewell: And you have a certain mindset that goes with all this, uh, you from the outset, from the very beginning when you were able to identify it. You went on a journey of, okay, I know what it is. Then you got frustrated cuz you couldn't figure it out right away. Then you kept going up and down, like, kind of like an entrepreneur solving a problem, starting a business, you know, going up and down.

 What's the mindset that you have that you think drives that?

[00:26:21] Kirstin: It's the understanding that there's a purpose to this and I'm here for a reason, and I don't want anybody to suffer if they don't have to.

The mental trap some people fall in

Ewell: That's,

Kirstin: Now some people will still choose the suffering. Like every now and then we meet somebody who claims they want to get better, but their identity is so wrapped in the idea that they're sick, that they can't even let go of that paradigm.

And that's their journey and that's the way they need to go. But when somebody really finally says, oh my God, I get it. You get me, you get where I am, and I, can see the other side. That's what drives us. Cuz there are days, I mean, it's tough to work with sick people cuz they're in crisis.

Ewell: You know, it's interesting you say that cause I'll see my wife explain to somebody, they'll ask her what she does nutrition wise and she follows a very strict, she has to, she doesn't have a choice. Cause if she doesn't follow it, she's like, Venus Williams on the bed and she can't even work. And she runs a non-profit and makes it nearly impossible for her to do her job.

That's how, uh, debilitating it can be. And so yeah, you bring that level of confidence and hope to. That they can get through this, which is key. Before we go to where you define you at one, one last time, what one piece of advice would you give to somebody? Because when my wife does talk to people about this and what she does, people like, I don't think I could do that.

So willing to live with it like you just said. So how, what is the one piece of advice you would give somebody, uh, to, to figure out, okay, you're hurting. Don't put a Band-Aid on it. Find a solution. How do you guide people when you get to that part of the conversation?

Kirstin: Yeah, they, that's the one piece they have to bring themselves is they have to want it to be different than what it Some people, again, their identity is wrapped around that. This is who I am and I get to complain about this. And people are, and they don't do this consciously. This is kind of a subconscious.

How people pay attention to me. how I have a persona, like, it's really an interesting dynamic that occurs. So, if they want to stay in that space. Like if somebody says to me, oh my God, I could never give up cheese. How do you give up cheese? I'm like,

[00:28:25] Ewell: That's the comment I hear when my wife talks. Not, not cheesy, but it could be cheesy, it could be 

We all have a choice

Kirstin: Yeah. Ice cream or, and I'm like, to me, that's just your subconscious value showing up, saying that cheese is more important to me than me feeling better. And that's not a judgment, it's just how we function. It's how the brain works. So, whenever we make a choice and we're making choices constantly, whichever we choose is the more important thing to.

Ewell: That's true. That is so

Kirstin: Some people need to put themselves last because they see themselves as a savior and that they need to suffer whatever it is. But if they come with the want, the desire, the true desire to get better, they a hundred percent can do that.

[00:29:06] Ewell: Well, you providing hope. My wife is an inspiration to me because of what she's done. I kind of mimicked not, not to the degree she has to be cuz I don't have an autoimmune, but I definitely eat better way. I eat whole foods and so forth and that has made a world of difference in the way.

And I want people to hearing this, to know there's hope, there's absolutely hope in this process. But you gotta, you gotta want it, right?

Kirstin: Yeah. You kind of want something to change. I literally had a woman on a call last week who said, well, I don't want to have to change any of my belief systems. And I was like, , well, you're going to have to change some belief system or else you're going to literally stay where you are. And I'm not trying to challenge who you are, what, but if you say you want to get better, what got you here isn't going to get you to the next level.

The tools to help are available that provide hope



So, something has to shift. But again, it's not my job to help peel your fingers off of the white knuckling you're your job to want it to be different. I can show you how we have all the tools and it works every time when somebody shows up and says, I want this to be.

[00:30:08] Ewell: And when you have the tools like that, that you can walk people through, that's invaluable. Tell the folks where can they find you and 

Kirstin: Yep. So Nourish123.com is the website. If they just want to bypass all of that and they just want to get on our calendar and have a conversation, they can go to Nourish123.com/heal. Um, we're also on all the social media. So,  Nourish 123 is our handle up most, most of the social media.

Well, Kirstin, this has been a pleasure. I think you're doing some really special work helping people and folks, pay attention to what she said. Go back and listen to this again if you need to because there's no need for people to suffer. My wife suffered needlessly for a little while and she was able to turn around just like Kirstin has been and many others have done the same thing.

Ewell: There's absolutely hope. Thank you, Kirstin.

Kirstin: Thank you.

[00:31:00] Ewell: And that is a wrap with Kirsten and I am very grateful for Kirsten coming on the show, especially as I've watched my wife try to figure this out on her own over the past three years. Candidly, I wish I had met Kirsten two or three years ago. I would've introduced my wife to her. You don't need to be alone in this process.

There is help. Kirsten's been down this road, as you've heard. I'd love to hear your feedback. And look, if you know anybody battling an autoimmune or trying to figure out what is really going on, sometimes that's, that's half the battle is identifying it, forward this episode to them because the, the symptoms that she talked about are really common and people dismiss 'em for other things, like my wife.

When she just thought she was losing her hair, when she just thought she was tired, and then she learned out that she actually had an autoimmune issue and she was fortunate enough to catch it early on before a second one came along. And that's key. So please forward this to anybody you know that might need that type of guidance.

And I want to thank you for being here as. I'm having a lot of fun with this. I'm hoping this is bringing value to you, and I'd love to hear your feedback on this episode.

 Because it really does strike a chord with me. Watch my wife. It's helped me out a lot. Me trying to help my wife, eating cleaner, finding the right foods to eat. All those things they, they matter. And I want to be there to support my wife. And, uh, if you've got a loved one, like I said, be there to support them as well.

Now, do me a favor for you. Be intentional. Make this your best year 2023. Happy New Year, and make this a great day.