Business Innovators Radio - Interview with America’s Wellness Coach, Ann Law

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

Ann helps people learn to live their optimal life by following the food, fitness and mindset guidelines outlined in her new book, The Law of Wellness.The Law of Wellness is the latest in her career fighting food and fitness fads.After graduating from Hunter College and Cornell University as a Family Nurse Practitioner, Ann not only specialized in family practice for ten years, but she also forced licensing legislation for Nurse Practitioners now used as a model for other states.Her experience serving four terms in local government, serving as the campaign manager for a congressional candidate in Westchester County, NY – founding The Coalition of Nurse Practitioners in New York and developing two successful businesses, provides perspective from medicine, business, and government leadership. This cross-section of industry experience sets the stage for Ann Law’s post-pandemic teachings to address America’s health crisis: while we spend the most on health care in the world, we have the worst health statistics.Her work as founder and first president of The New York State Coalition of Nurse Practitioners was detailed in a book entitled, A Few Strong Women. Ann served as a family health care provider for ten years at the Sharon Clinic in Millbrook, NY. Her practice was featured in Redbook magazine in July 1981.Today, America’s Wellness Coach splits her time between her B&B Inns on Block Island, RI, real estate ventures and home in Fort Myers.Connect with Ann: http://lawofwellness.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-americas-wellness-coach-ann-law

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us America's Wellness Coach Ann Law. And welcome to the program. Thank you so much. Happy to be here. Yes, I'm excited to learn from you because I always love when I talk to new people just learning from their perspectives and their experience. And so obviously you were, as you being the America's wellness coach, we were going to talk about wellness. And that's awesome because that means that you have a dialed in system and methodology that we want to learn from. But before we get into that, let's back up into, you know, kind of your story and your background. What's your entrepreneurial journey been like to this point in your career?

Well, it's been very exciting and often daunting, but that's what makes you stronger. And I've been led to this. I'm a family nurse practitioner by education and training, and I had a very nice practice in a small community in New York for over 10 years, and I was a family provider. So that's where I learned a lot about what we as health care providers. have not been taught. That means that we really were not carefully taught about prevention. And the most, we call it that we are health care providers when in fact we are illness

care providers because we did not learn a lot about, we didn't learn anything about prevention. We only learned about treatment of illness. You were being reactive. You weren't being proactive. That is exactly right. And also we were really taught primarily about medicinal approaches to illness, but were taught nothing about preventing illness.

And so I'm actually, while I'm a family nurse practitioner, I also became somewhat by default involved in the in industry. And I have been in that for almost 30. years, meaning I own and manage bed and breakfast inns in a resort community. And it's basically wellness for the spirit as opposed to wellness for the body. So it's just, it was just, while it was somewhat by default that I got into this business, I have been in it for a long time, and it basically is not far afield from my nurse practitioner, education and training, but because I basically serve people in another form of wellness,

which is their spiritual wellness. But a personal event actually in my life, I was actually engaged to someone who, after a long relationship, devoled that he had had two cardiac events and four stents. And as a health care provider, I knew that that meant that the likelihood of having another cardiac event was very, very likely. Therefore, that made me take a very deep dive into how do I prevent this person from having another cardiac event. And I took a deep, deep, deep dive into all forms of prevention. and that resulted in my new book, coming soon, entitled The Law of Wellness. The Law of Wellness is a comprehensive guide to food, fitness, and mindset for lifetime wellness.

And will it work? It works every time because it's based on, well, pure science, pure research, and supported by the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, as well as the Cardiology Association, the Diabetes Association, Kaiser Permanente, is now recommending this type of plan for all of their patients. So it based on really a lot of research and a lot of working with people and using my program and seeing results. And therefore, I now am happy that we're about ready to be published. And then we're going to go on to, I've aligned myself with a board certified preventive care physician. And together we will be presenting wellness weeks and wellness weekends here at my inns on Block Island in Rhode Island. So there's a lot coming up.

Yeah, that's quite a mouthful introduction of your entrepreneurial journey. And it makes me think when do you sleep? But I know that you sleep well because that's part of being well. So that's awesome. It brings up a couple of points that I want to go a little bit deeper on because you said you took a deep, deep dive into helping your friend prevent that cardiac event. And I wanted to recognize that you did not take a deep dive to profit from something that you feel like you could make a buck or 10 from. You took a deep dive into preventing cardiac events through the lens of being caring and loving to that person. And when you approach a situation that way, that's when huge opportunity comes because you're not doing it out of selfish profiteering.

That is absolutely true. That's a true story. That's how it happened. But in the course of that, I became fascinated with wellness. And then the rest became history. And then I started using the program for my friends. and they were amazed and my daughter called me one day

and said, Mom, I've been dating this guy. We've been going out to dinner every night for weeks. I've gained 20 pounds. Aren't you writing something about that? Do you have that program? Can you send it to me?

I sent it to her and she wrote back maybe a month or later and said, oh my heaven, it worked so well. I have lost 10 pounds in a month, which is pretty classic. And she said, and I'm cooking all these amazing new things. It's really amazing.

So, and I can give you. Real world results. Yeah. Real world results. And if people close to you benefited from that, then you started opening your perspective to say, well, if these people need it, benefited from it. And saw that was easy to do and implement, maybe others will as well. So that kind of started creating your perspective for broadening your borders.

That's exactly what happened. So that's where we are. It's been a long journey because, as I mentioned, I have several businesses that I'm responsible for. And therefore, my time isn't open-ended. And therefore it took me a long time to finish this book. However, I am pleased with the product. And I know that what's in the... there will, if you follow the guidelines, it will result in lifetime wellness, guaranteed,

almost. So when you think about, you know, how you serve clients, obviously it's the wellness approach through your book and your teachings. But also I want to tie that into your retail business you're in because if I'm understanding correctly, it's not just another room that you're renting. It's almost like an experience and a destination where it's the room plus this experience. So talk a little bit about how you're serving your clients that way. There is no question about that.

My inns are on Black Island, which I discovered many years ago. I'm from New York originally, and I had a brief period of time a couple of days to get away. I had three very young children, and I wanted to go to the beach. And I couldn't go to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket because they were too far. if you have three little children and a tiny little boguswalk. So as it was at that time, and interestingly enough, my very first night on Block Island with these three little children, we stayed at the Blue Dory Inn, which I later purchased,

and then I purchased another, and so it's been a long and very good experience. And Block Island, as one of my guests described it, is therapy for the soul. and I could not agree more. When you are here, because it requires a ferry or a flight to get here, there's not a causeway that comes to Block Island. And once you get up, you become separated from the mainland, suddenly you begin, it almost is like a meditation. And when you hear it is so beautiful that. it takes you to another place and you become, I think, more insightful. And as she described it, and the reason she was here was because her son had recently

committed suicide. And I can't imagine anything more devastating. And that's when she said, I came here to heal from this event. And she described her experience as therapy for the soul. And so that is what Block Island is, and that's why it's a perfect place to have a wellness center, which is what we're putting on right now. Yeah, I think that it's just so spectacular. And you're coming at both of these initiatives from the perspective of caring and being empathetic to humans and people. You know, a lot of times people talk about B2B, business to business or B2C, business to customer, but it's really H to age, human to human. And when you hear just a huge mindset shift. So let's kind of take even a step back and say, okay, so these are some of the

tentacles. And I can tell that you're never satisfied to go, I'm done, I've achieved everything. Nope, you're always constantly a never-ending improving. But at this point, you've got a lot of things, you know, codified and figured out. And you're now developing these into your deliverables with your clients. But up to this point, there had to have been a failure. or a breakdown. So from either a personal or a professional level, talk a little bit about a failure or a breakdown on the path to getting to this point that you can share.

Well, I've had some devastating experiences, and that's how you become stronger, as I have read from many of the greats, because that's where I got most of my tenacity is from reading Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra and all of the other. greats who tell you it's not what happens, it's how you handle it. And so I did have a devastating experience, as I mentioned. I purchased an inn that I really didn't know anything about the in industry. However, I did believe in Block Island as a place one should make an investment. As a matter of fact, shortly after I made the investment, Block Island was identified by the Nature Conservancy as one of the last great places in the Northern Hemisphere, one of 12.

And Block is 50% forever green. Therefore, what you see is what you'll always see. And we also have fabulous, there's just a great historic village that is absolutely lovely. All of our beaches are public. We are now fully wind powered in the first offshore. wind farm in the country. And so Block has many, we also have no crime here. And so it is a place to renew and refresh and have therapy for the soul, actually. However, I purchased the inn about

33 years ago and I hired the manager from the former owner. And I felt confident with that person, because the prior owner had been quite savvy, and I felt that he had been vetted properly. And I was a nurse practitioner at the time, and therefore I would come back to block every several weeks to pay the bills and so on. However, there was a crash in 87. I purchased the inn in 89, so by 92,

my inn was upside down and not doing well at all. And so I came to Block Island in 1992 to rescue my investment and my asset. And it didn't take me long to learn that the manager had been, well, been using funds inappropriately, shall we say. And therefore, that's why that plus the crash created the fact that we, we, that plus the crash created the fact that, we were upside down, meaning I was very close to foreclosure. It was very, very, very, very challenging time because I could not hire anyone because there wasn't funds to support that.

So I worked 14 or 16 hours a day, cooking, cleaning, answering, making reservations, and doing everything you need to do when you have an inn. And I learned very quickly, and I was extremely determined, and I put in place all the things that I would recommend that all came from my advisors, I'll call them, meaning the Wayne Dyer's, the Deepak Chopin's, and all of those books that I read, Dennis Waitley and I could go on with the whole list of the greats.

And I used that those approaches. And the first one is, and I think the most important, is to believe and succeed. If you don't believe that you will succeed, you won't. So you have to start with belief. This is a very interesting story because I was a very, very, very hard time because I had to go from upside down to award winning, which I did. And this is the strategy I used. I used exactly what they recommend that you do.

In words, I believed that I would succeed. A, B. I visualized that success. I formed an affirmation that I said, any time I was standing in line at the bank, standing in line at the grocery, driving from one point to the other, walking the beach. Wherever I was, when I was quiet, I affirm, I used affirmation over and over again.

I also went to a remote part of the island with a car I had at the time, and I hop in Michael Bolton's song, Back on My Feeding. And I had to have to say that I would weep. And I listened and I listened over and over again, and I was determined I will get back on my feet one day. I will be there. I visualize that I felt it. I experienced it. There's another little story about that experience also because I, one of my guess, I should do Michael Bolton personally.

This came years later. And he wrote a children's book actually, which I had a copy of. And she said, if you give that to me, I will take it to Michael, and he will sign it for you. And he also texted me a beautiful message about how he was that his song inspired me to sit. And then it did. So these were very long, difficult months to put my in back on my feet again. But I used a very something that occurred to me that if, I had home on the island at the time, and I said, if I rent my home for this season and other seasons as well, I will have new income and I'm not going to have any other place to get it from.

And that's what will make me succeed and go into foreclosure. And that's what I did. and within three to five years after that, I was turning away that I met someone who was about to open therein, and he was complaining about the fact that he had to open his inn. And I said, well, gee, how many ones do you have? Because we're turning a lot of people away every season. And he said, well, I have, I used to say to myself, I only have. wish I had more rooms. And he said, we have nine rooms in a cottage. And I said, well, would you

like to lease them to me? And he said, are you serious? I'm very, very serious. And I said, it's just the lease. And I handle it with our attorneys in the afternoon. And he's, well, what about my employees? I said, I'll hire them. And he's, well, who's going to answer the phone? I said, go and over. I'll answer it. And that led to my necktend, and that led to another one. And I have multiple things on Block Island right now. Yeah. And so that failure breakdown of trusting that manager reminded me of an old saying that I think is attributed to Ronald Reagan, but you might recognize it. It's something to the effect of trust, but verify. So you can put trust in people I'm so sorry. I'm having trouble turn my phone off here. But I'll take care of that so that it doesn't interrupt us again. So I'm sorry.

And so you can put your trust in people, but don't put blind trust in people, verify that they're doing what they say they're going to do. But through the example in the story that you just mentioned, you took it upon yourself to keep those beliefs in place, do tactical, practical things like having visual. you know, visualization of the goal achieved and having belief, it really ties into that faith aspect, right? So talk a little bit how faith kept you going through that time, because if you had a belief or had an affirmation, but you didn't have the faith to go along with it, it would kind of, you know, go up and smoke really quickly. Absolutely true. If you think you can, you can, you can. You're right. I'm sure you've read that along from one of the greats. And that's what propelled me to success.

There's no question about it. And whenever I meet new obstacles, I put in place the same group of things, meaning believe it, see it, affirm it, visualize it, manifest. So it kind of makes me think that there's a lot of things to do. Go ahead. Yes. A lot of people that would go through that same struggle would let that defeat them. They wouldn't take a deep breath and believe and succeed and visualize and have the faith. So what is it that you feel from your upbringing or just your mindset helped you to use those as levers and springboards to even more success rather than the alternative?

which is, well, I knew and it could never succeed anyway. So these failures and breakdowns actually propelled you to more success. They did, but only because I used the techniques that I learned from the grades. And I learned them all.

It wasn't actually from, I actually came from a very modest background of hardworking parents who were not educated formally. and they had a very good work ethic. Both of them, both of my parents were very hard workers. And I certainly, as a matter of fact, there's an interesting story. When I was 11, I wanted to have more clothing to wear to school.

And my mother said to me, well, if you want more things, then you have a job. and I'm thinking, wow, okay, I need to get a job. Well, how, anyway, I, you know, I have a goal. And so I learned pretty quickly that if I got a paper route, it was in a more suburban area, I could deliver papers on a bike. and so I was able to make that happen. And I became a person who delivered newspapers every afternoon on a bike. And it was a very long route because I was in an area.

I'm so sorry. I have this on an airplane mode, but it doesn't appear working. In any case, I would take this long bike ride and it was very hilly. But I was very determined also, and I was able to make money, as my mother suggested. And I never stopped working from that time. I went from that to working at a fruit stand and then came in nurses aid. And it's a long story of knowing that if you work hard, you can succeed. And you add the other component, meaning that you have to.

believe in yourself. Because if you don't and you go down downward, a minute you start saying, I can't, the universe says, okay. But when you say, I can, I can do this, universe will come in and support you. And it happens because hard work alone can lead to And just util results because you might be spinning your wheels. And if you ask yourself, I know I can do it, how can I get past this thing? Your mind starts going into alternatives of, well, I could do this and well, I could do that rather than I can't do it.

So the mindset shift that you're bringing up here that goes along with, hard work, perseverance, diligence, faith, belief, all of these things. they all have to work together because standing alone, hard work alone doesn't do it. Belief alone doesn't do it because you could sit on the couch and believe, believe, believe, and not lift a finger. And what's that going to give you? Nothing. You must take action. You must take action. In other words, yes, you have to believe and you have to visualize and you have to affirm.

You have to do all of those things to manifest. But you must take action, appropriate action. or else nothing will happen. And if to be, it's up to me. That's another one of my little affirmations, I guess. Well, yes, mantra affirmation. I love it. So looking back through some of those challenging times,

how would you do things differently if given the chance? And I guess I'll add to that thought, would you do anything differently? Because it reminds me whenever I think of that question of like the caterpillar, butterfly cocoon scenario, which you may have heard of this before. But if you see a caterpillar trying to bust out of the cocoon and you help it, it dies because it doesn't have enough friction in its wings to get the blood flowing through. And it needs that struggle to come out of the cocoon to have the strength in its wings.

So some people might go, oh, I would do differently this because I would have avoided this, this, this, and this. That might not be the strongest case. you might need to go through those challenges to then arrive stronger the other side. What are your thoughts on that? There's no question about that. And that is that when you accomplish something that you knew was very difficult, but you did all those things and you took all the action that you knew you had to take and you succeed,

once that happens, you say, well, if I can do that, I can do anything. And it's interesting. I had a very varied career, as I mentioned, I am a family nurse practitioner and had a very nice practice as an employee in a rural community in New York. I also was a legislator and I also founded the statewide organization of nurse practitioners. and we were able to successfully implore the legislature in Albany to provide for legislation so that nurse practitioners could practice in New York. And that statute that we created through the assistance of the legislature,

it became a model for other states. as I achieved each one of the goals. In other words, I became a legislator because I thought government was not working for people. That motivated to become a legislator. And that led to because I used a very unique approach, because I was very determined to, I'm not going to spend all that time and all that money and not win. I was very determined, and therefore I designed my own campaign, meaning that I would only make an arrangement whereby I only spoke to registered voters, because if you're out there

and you're spending time with people who aren't registered, they cannot elect you, even though they may want to, they cannot if they're registered. So I only spoke to registered voters, and so anyway, that one A, I, I, I won the election, and B, it won a lot of credibility for me in that area, so that gave me the opportunity to run a Congress campaign in Westchester County, which was a very, very challenging situation, something I'd never done before. But the person who got me that role is confident that because I designed a very unique campaign to my election, that I would take those same strengths and take to another person's election. And that person did win, marginally, but did win. And I came away saying, if I can do that, I can do anything.

So every success propels you to next. Then you begin to take on more and more and more because you've had this success. if I can do that, I can do this. And as you can see, one propels to the next. And that has been my experience. I've taken on, you know, huge, I mean, purchased in that were challenging. And I also do house renovations. And so the next in I bought, which is directly on the beach on Block Island,

it was in very poor condition. and I renovated it down to stud and before I opened it and then went on to do many more renovations and purchasing and selling. So it's been a very exciting and also very challenging career. And now I'm ready for my next one, which is the wellness work. Yes.

Which the neat thing is you're not pivoting 180 degrees, leaving one behind, starting another one, you're folding them and integrating them together. So I think that is so spectacular. Exactly right. From a 30,000 foot view, like a broad perspective, how can people succeed in their health and wellness in their personal and professional life? What are some of the key points they need to consider? Well, my book, as I mentioned, which is entitled The Law of Wellness, is food, fitness and mindset. Those are the components of success.

And right now, I'm observing, and I'm sure everyone else is as well, is that the single most significant factor in creating illness, chronic illness, meaning all forms of heart disease, whether it be a heart attack or a stroke or high blood pressure, which leads to those things as well, type 2 diabetes as well as many cancers. The primary factor now that creates those illnesses is overweight and obesity. And it has superseded cigarette smoking as the single eating cause of those chronic illnesses. So therefore, becoming more aware, we have been very very badly miseducated regarding what foods are really good for you and what foods are really not. So they have to take a deep dive into foods that are really good for you and foods that are

really not good for you. And because we've been miseducated, you probably are not knowing which foods are good for you. But my book will help you with that. So yes, we need to take a much a stronger look at why we are not well or why we have, as a matter of fact, chronic illness in our country has increased. And to the point right now, we are, we're in a health crisis, I would have to call it. So we need to move. So food, fitness and mindset. That's the, that's the three-legged stool that you have to have all working together, not just one or two. So that's spectacular. And you know, you mentioned why.

And it makes me think of this question. You've come through a lot of struggles of your career and learned lessons and you've solidified your purpose. What is your why at this point? You've got this overarching medical and health and business, you know, past. What is your why right now? And what are you looking at moving forward? Well, I'm passionate about wellness and primarily because it's so doable.

It's not mysterious. You can be well for a lifetime. And remember, because I'm in Rhode Island, I frequent the Providence Airport very often. And I looked up not long ago at the top of the gates, and there are huge signs, and they're by CVS. And they read, health is everything. and help is everything. How many times have we spoken to people who say, well, if I had my help, I would open a new business,

or I would do this, or I would do that, or they would start a new career, or they would do so many things if I had my help. Also, if maybe you have this stunning idea that you want to create, but if you're not well, you're not going to be able to create it. So wellness is my passion right now, and I can't wait to help others learn that this is not mysterious. It's not that difficult. It can all be done.

And one thing I've read and believe is when the why is clear, the how is easy. And that's what I found in my deep dive. into this, the material that resulted in my book is that when you know that certain foods are going to cause a situation in your body that is bound to lead to a bad end and you know, you know that that's going to happen, it becomes much easier to avoid those foods that you may have loved, but you know are really bad for you. So it becomes not even a question anymore. You don't even have to think about it.

It becomes easy. So when the why is clear, the how is easy. And that's what the book is all about. All the whys so that the how becomes easy. I love it. And Ann, it's just been such a pleasure. Talking with you, learning from your struggles and your obstacles you've come through with that mindset and that belief and the affirmations and vision.

visualizations and keeping the faith. It's been such a great masterclass in success. And just to see how you're bringing the health and wellness industry to the, you know, in industry. I just love how you're serving the people that you're working with, your clients and residents. I think that is spectacular. So we will make sure that we've got everything in the show notes ready to point people to your book and your websites and how to reach out and connect with you. But boy, I'm sure that if you just Googled Ann Law, America's Wellness Coach, you're going to find out exactly what you're doing and what you're up to. So thank you so much for coming on the show today. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you so much, Mike, for taking the time to hear my passion.

Excellent. Thank you very much. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. Influential EntrepreneursRadio.com.