April 29, 2024 • 29 mins
Immerse yourself in an extraordinary episode of "InspiHER'd: Your Grown-Up Girl Talk" examining the unique stories of remarkable female entrepreneurs in health and wellness with Dr. Chantal Lunderville. The conversation deeply explores the disparities in the modern healthcare system, with a particular focus on issues surrounding women's health and wellness.
Discover Dr. Lunderville's awe-inspiring path from disappointment with traditional medical practices to formulating a holistic approach better suited to women's health. Listen to her intriguing story of blending medical expertise with entrepreneurial spirit to create her own line of health and wellness resolutions. This episode delves into her empowering journey, which spans from a concierge practice to motivating female entrepreneurs in the medical sector, bypassing insurance constrictions along the way.
An important dialogue about fertility, childbirth, and menopause unfolds, underscoring the insufficient personalized support for women in these areas. Through Dr. Lunderville's initiative, emphasis is redirected towards empowering women, not solely concerning their health but also in their entrepreneurial endeavors. Witness how she allows her fervor for challenging societal standards to overpower her fears, forging an innovative pathway for women in the sector of medicine.
The episode concludes with a preview of a Health Summit retreat, introducing "Dr. C's Academy", and the importance of understanding how environmental factors can affect women's hormonal changes and fertility. This stirring episode not just sheds light on present-day women's health issues but also celebrates the scale and depth of women's resilience, bravery, and dedication in crafting a healthier society for future generations.
Chantal Lunderville (@drchantallunderville) • Instagram photos and videos
https://www.youtube.com/@DrChantalLunderville?si=jjZtm-kBl7dsuhUl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I have my own mic. Hello and welcome to Inspired, your grown-up girl talk.
I'm Stacey Fleece with Samantha Tredelius for some fun girl talk.
More she brands, amazing entrepreneurs.
How are you, by the way? I'm doing really well. I got a new light,
so I'm a little brighter than usual. I'm kind of adjusting. I like the bright.
(00:20):
You know, I'm just, you inspired me to kind of up the game with the new mic and the new lighting.
So, you know, I'm over here just working through it, which is super great.
Our guest today can help us to also talk about ways we can look better.
Yeah, speaking of brightening and lightening. All the way around.
So we have with us today, Dr. Chantal Lunderville. Chantal, how are you today? Amazing.
(00:44):
You are, and I've said this before, I love the meandering journey that takes
multiple turns and twists as you work through your career path, right?
So you, I think you exemplify that more than some others.
You are a, let's just say a board certified physician.
(01:04):
You actually studied and did residency at grownup schools, big time schools, UCLA, UCSF.
So no, this is, you are not a shrinking violet in the medical practice.
No, I said, what's the top? I want to go there. there.
As you should, and you you nailed it, you nailed it.
(01:27):
And then and you you were in in practice for a period of time.
But I think this is interesting.
You said that you left the modern healthcare system because you didn't feel
that they really supported they as an industry supported,
women's wellness, which I we've had that as a theme, a regular theme really,
fairly recently that keeps coming up.
(01:48):
So tell us a little bit about your experience in that arena.
Well, happy to be here. Thank you so much for the work that you do with Sparkle
Foundation and Uplifting Women's Voices.
There's so many instances where I can say I was disillusioned,
but really I went to UCSF and UCLA and was in a women's health fellowship at UCSF.
(02:11):
And I myself had never been more unhealthy.
And so I had to really take a step back and say, okay, I am a doctor now.
How do I want to live my life? And I basically was like, I haven't slept in 15 years.
I haven't slept a good night's sleep. I barely see my friends.
(02:32):
I never work out. And so it was really sort of my own wellness journey that I embarked on.
And then along the way, it was mainly experimental. I just followed my curiosity.
I left the Women's Hall of Fellowship, So I disappointed a lot of people,
which is a theme in sometimes when we take care of ourselves,
you're going to disappoint people.
So that doesn't feel great, but you have to be true to yourself.
(02:55):
I left. I ended up starting a concierge business in the Bay Area doing Botox
and filler, and I didn't even connect Botox and filler to wellness.
At that time, it was mainly how do I want to take care of women?
And I started off seeing women in their homes.
I did Botox parties and it was like a very organic way to grow my business.
But it allowed me a few years to sort of experiment with how do I want to see
(03:18):
women, longer appointments,
seeing women in their homes, seeing women with their friends,
having sort of this anti-clinic approach to how do I meet women where they are.
And that kind of spawned everything else in my career.
I dig it. I dig it. So women's, you know, wellness and women's,
you know, services in the medical space because you're firsthand in there.
(03:40):
I mean, is it I always kind of feel like we're not being heard a lot of times
with the things that we actually need, want and desire.
And those that are doing it like yourself are in such a like niche practice
because it's not really adopted across the board.
What do you say to that? Like just as an industry? Yeah.
(04:00):
Well, I will say from being on the other side of it and being in a highly academic
place where it's like, oh, this is the best of the best.
But women that would come into our clinic and like when I was a resident and
I would talk to my attendings and I'd be like, yeah, she's been doing her own
like research and supplements and going to this holistic doctor.
And we would all just kind of roll our eyes because you're, yes,
(04:22):
like you're. You know what it is? It's the word holistic. Everyone's like, okay.
Already doctors are like, just bring Berkeley right into it.
Let's just bust out the Birkenstocks. Let's go.
And I was also on that train of thought because I was like, this means it's
going to make my job harder. She's not going to listen to me.
(04:44):
And so I think it's not like black or white, it's us versus doctors.
It's more of like doctors have a very constrained time limit.
They also can only really do what's ordered for insurance, what's reimbursed,
what's supported by the clinic.
You're not really taught to sort of go off on your own like,
(05:04):
oh, if you want to learn how to support women in like a unique way to build
your own practice, you kind of have to do that on your own.
If you go through the modern medical system, training, residency to meet all
the requirements to, you know, pass your boards and all that.
You have, you are trained.
Sorry, my dog is going wild.
So you're, you're sort of trained. Mine going wild. Yeah. Really?
(05:30):
This is a normal position every day. Oh my God. I didn't realize that is your dog. Yeah.
So that's all, that's all to say that it's no one's fault except sort of how
the health system is set up right now.
But I think women have to,
have their own voice like that that it's like
(05:51):
you said the disillusionment that the health care system doesn't speak for
us anymore the health care system doesn't even train for us i i i think i brought
this up before that i follow this physician who is very big in menopause and
and such and and the education around that and she had made and she's an ob
she's a state licensed ob B, board certified.
(06:13):
And she said at one point that in her entire academic career in medicine,
I think one hour was spent on teaching about menopause.
One hour. So she said, this is great. Like 100% of women are going to go through
it. Women are 50% of the population.
100% will go through it. And one hour was spent on the education around this. That's awful. awful.
(06:39):
It's really, really terrible. And I mean, that's part of, so our last event
that we had, we had one of our sponsors, Suzanne, she's a holistic nutritionist.
She talked about how our hormones change at different phases of our lives and menopause.
And the reaction in the crowd that I've been seeing is that women just feel hurt for the first time.
(07:00):
And that's so, So that's undeniable.
And so we sort of followed this reaction and we created an event all around
menopause and even things like fertility,
things where we're sort of told a certain thing in our doctor's office and we're
hearing all sorts of other things from our friends, our mom.
(07:20):
Like they're just two separate worlds. And we were like, how do we help bridge
the gap? I feel like the doctors have this just sort of script.
And it's not it's not personalized. It's not specific to any issues that I'm
having or Samantha's having or whoever.
It's just the script. This is what they say to you when you're this age.
This is what they say to you when you're having that problem. That's what they say.
(07:41):
And then, like you said, we go out and we start doing our own research and thank God for the Internet.
And honestly, like, I mean, for all people want to say about social media,
like for me personally, I mean, perimenopause has not been my friend and I've
been very vocal about that.
But it's been such an education, a self-education journey for me because I have
(08:03):
not been able to get the answers anyplace else.
So and I feel like all that, like you said, back to all the way back to fertility
or, you know, even in our early health issues, issues, I shouldn't even say
that. It's just our life moments, our healthy moments.
I'm having a moment. Then men do. Men don't really have these moments.
(08:24):
Right. We do. We have very specific stages.
And I just don't feel like the medical community is built for it.
I completely agree. We don't, and we, you know, we kind of do get scripts.
Like we do get scripts of, okay, this is what we say to a woman after childbirth.
(08:44):
Like, you know, you're, you're going to feel off this. You need to ask for more support.
These are, these are the sort of the normal things. And these are the not normal things.
And a lot of that is based off of risk based off of, oh, let's make sure she's not bleeding too much.
Let's make sure she doesn't have any tears that we've missed.
Like we have a running list of things that we want to make sure we don't miss.
But in terms of holistically caring for her, I would say most of us do want to do more.
(09:10):
We just don't, we're not really set up to do that. We're like,
okay, call it social work.
Nobody told me that when I left the hospital four days after I had my child
that I would still be wearing maternity clothes.
Nobody told me that. Nobody told me that I was going to be wearing mesh panties,
but that's another, that's a whole nother storyline for another day.
So you said to hell with the modern medical clinic moment, and you said,
(09:33):
I'm going to go do something different.
So tell us what you went out and did as a result of you leaving the Women's Center. her?
So I, it sort of just started with, again, that curiosity, built a concierge
practice myself going with my little medical bag, driving all over the Bay Area.
And that was kind of my, everyone has their like Amazon in the garage moment,
(09:56):
you know, like that was my moment.
And for two years, I just went and I saw women and I talked to them and I listened
to them. and eventually my following grew.
I wanted to open a physical location, moved back to Orange County where my family's
from because I didn't want to settle long-term away from them and built a medical spa.
(10:17):
And then I got hit up by a lot of nurses who said, can you be my medical director?
And at that time, I was very scared to supervise an injector that I wasn't physically
there all all the time, but they were close enough by that I could go check on them.
And I really saw an opportunity in that space to supervise women creating businesses.
(10:39):
And so while the traditional medical system looked at them and saw,
wow, tons of liability, this is new.
I really saw it as a way to foster single moms opening their own business.
So now you're taking your medical background and now you're not only improving the health of women.
And when I say health, I mean, even the mental health and how they feel about
(11:01):
themselves and the self-confidence.
But now you're building entrepreneurs and you're building leadership strength
and, you know, women lifting.
This is like, did you ever think your medical degree was going to lead you to this?
So actually, I chose medicine because it was a platform to do a lot of other things.
And I always tell people looking to looking, they ask for career advice.
(11:24):
And I say, you know, a lot of doctors I know are very burned out because,
again, they're dealing with constraints and taking care of people and they're working in a system that,
maybe isn't structured for how they want to deliver care. And I always say,
think about how you do want to take care of people.
Don't work in the confines of what's given to you. Be the first to change it.
So yes, I thought about being a journalist. I thought about being an art curator.
(11:49):
I thought about being so many things. And then I saw a professor in my college
who was a doctor, and she was teaching about various types of clinics that you can set up abroad.
And she she wrote books and I was like, wow, she's a doctor,
but she's making an impact in her own way.
And I said, I want to be a doctor and have that be a stepping stone.
So that's what I always encourage people to do. I mean, especially in this economy,
(12:11):
you really have to create your own opportunities and think about how do I want
to use this in a way to help people?
Like I worked with patients, you know, I did practice after I graduated.
While I was building my business, I was still working at Kaiser per diem.
I was working at Department of Public Health in their free clinics per diem.
And I kind of was just taking all of that in.
(12:34):
And I love working with patients, but I thought, I also want to work on a bigger
scale. I want to work in events.
I want to have these conversations with rooms full of people, not just one person.
So I also encourage women and people just in their career to look at,
to think outside the box in terms of how they want to make an impact.
I dig it. And I think it's very interesting because it's definitely not the
norm when it comes to people in your field.
(12:56):
I got to assume that there was probably some times where you were like really
digging deep to like get the courage to go and do these things and walk on a
different path than, you know, what you were supposed to do.
You know, what were some of those hurdles and some of those,
you know, late night thoughts that kind of kept you going and how did you overcome them?
Because I mean, we all go through it as business owners, but I can imagine because
(13:18):
you were going in such a different direction than, you know,
years of schooling was telling you, you're supposed to do this girl.
You're not supposed to be doing that.
Yes. Do you know, I think that book, there's a quote that sometimes the,
the urge to break open is bigger than your fear of, I'm, I'm messing up the
quote now, but it's basically like your,
(13:40):
let your urge to break open, be bigger than your fear.
And that's how I felt I would rather risk everything and and deal with uncertainty than.
Work under someone telling me how I need to take
care of people and I love that that maybe it's my fear
of authority yeah but I would rather
(14:00):
it's just you have to choose your problems are your problems going
to be okay let me figure this out how to manage a team let me figure
out how to do this thing or is it how do I manage this boss that doesn't quite
understand me like so and I come from an entrepreneur family so I really saw
my parents working weekends and evenings my dad built a construction business
(14:21):
from the time I was six years old so I never really saw.
I always wanted to be that problem solver for a company rather than being told what to do.
And doctors, and it's unfortunate that I think 50 years ago,
we were able to run our own practices and have a lot of autonomy.
But now it's corporations that are telling us how to do our job.
(14:44):
Doctors don't get to run their businesses. Insurance companies run their businesses.
Absolutely. And I think this is what people don't understand.
It's crazy. I love that though. Choose your problems. I'm going to,
I'm about to think about that one.
And then you took a step even further in how can I impact more than one person at a time?
(15:04):
How can I get in front of a room of people?
And you created your own opportunities.
Let's talk a little bit about the Health Summit retreat.
So May 19th in Manhattan Beach, and I'm a medical director for Beam Aesthetic
Lounge, and they are in Manhattan Beach.
She services a lot of local moms, love her practice. She's been in dermatology over 10 years.
(15:29):
And I wanted to do something to service her community and support her spa as
well as double down on what the feedback we got at our last event.
Women are so hungry for health topics that really speak to their experiences
rather than like, yeah, this is percent.
Yeah. Like in medical school, it's like, okay, this is evidence-based.
This is what you can recommend without fear of being sued, right?
(15:54):
And so at this last event, just seeing the feedback, the energy that women gave
when we talked about these things, I was like, okay, let's do an event.
All about this. So I'm going to open up the day talking about this very thing.
What are things that we are learning more recently about longevity?
We look at the blue zones.
What are things that we're learning about egg quality? I read this book,
(16:16):
It Starts With The Egg, and it completely blew my mind.
And a lot of women that struggle with fertility have gotten so much benefit from reading this book.
And it's based on biochemical research.
It's a biochemist who wrote it who was was having fertility issues.
So she looks more at the biochemical processes, the hormones in the body rather
than doctors looking at the, does it increase live births?
(16:40):
Does it increase healthy pregnancies?
So the way that doctors look at the fertility endpoints are different than what
a biochemical researcher looks at it.
She's going to say, oh, the beauty product that you're using that has silicone
in it is going to negatively impact the egg.
So I'm interested in what are those smaller things that are in our environment
(17:02):
that are influencing our egg quality that later on look at can influence fertility.
So I introduced some of those topics in terms of things to look out for,
things to improve your egg quality, and then some of the things that happen
during menopause and things to look out for.
And then we transitioned to, we have have Dr. Kang and Dr.
(17:22):
Ho from Reproductive Partners, and they're going to be talking about how to
test your ovarian reserve.
Kind of what is your anatomy? What are your cycles every month?
And what do they mean for you?
Because a lot of women were only taught like, don't get pregnant,
but they're not taught about their anatomy and like why they get a period,
what happens during menopause.
And then Suzanne is going to be talking about nutrition, lifestyle to support
(17:43):
hormonal changes, particularly during menopause.
She's also doing a cooking demo, like a meal prep demo.
Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. So everything's very interactive.
And then we will also have a panel in Clean Beauty with Cassandra McClure.
Clean Beauty founders, a lot of them went through their own health crises.
In order to formulate products that don't have synthetic chemicals,
(18:06):
that don't have these emulsifiers and things that interfere with your fertility, your hormones.
So we're bringing on women that have had their own experiences as well as experts that get it.
Well, and it's interesting because I believe it or not, whether we want to believe
it or not, everything ties in together.
So like, honestly, the shit that we're putting in our mouths,
(18:27):
the shit that we're putting on our face, all of these things. Well said.
And effect on all of the parts of us and, you know, getting back to that holistic moment, right?
The wholeness of these beings that we are.
I mean, every little thing that we're doing really does have an impact.
And kudos to you for bringing it all together in one place for people to really,
(18:48):
you know, be able to soak in because everything you're saying is things that
are women are talking about everywhere.
And I think it's like a gaslighting moment where we're like, we're not crazy.
No. Oh my God. Yes. Yes, we are not 100% a gaslighting moment.
Like, no, no, it wasn't just me all this time. I thought it was just me. It's not just me.
(19:09):
It's not just me. And there's a whole community of women and experts that are
now catching on to where what what cleaning product should I buy so that my,
you know, it doesn't affect my kids.
And even there's been so much research linked to like, like cleaning products
and neurological changes later in life, like Parkinson's disease.
And And now we're having the evidence.
(19:31):
So we need to ask for more. And like, we're entitled to that.
Well, and I think that medicine for like, as a practice should be looking at
these things on the front end, instead of just trying to bandaid them with a medication.
When you go to like, why are you in this position? You know,
why have you, you know, have these ailments?
Is it because of these different factors in your environment or things that you're doing?
(19:54):
I mean, not just the normal stuff that we know is not good for us,
but like the things that we're not even thinking about.
That we gave our public trust to these companies.
And now we're like, maybe they don't have my best interests in mind.
Like, how do I become a more educated consumer?
And when we target women, it changes generations.
We know this from family medicine, that when we influence the health and support
(20:18):
and well-being of the mother, generally she passes that on to her kids.
She creates the budgets, the meals for the household.
So women are really the change makers to improving society.
Women rule the world. I feel like whether or not you all want to believe it,
we are here doing things behind the scenes.
I feel like that's just like right there. I like, I just want to pause it right there.
(20:44):
We are the change makers. I don't care who doesn't want to believe it.
You can go fuck yourself. Cause literally I didn't know this was that type of
podcast. Oh, it is. Oh, it is.
It is a hundred percent, but even in real.
Yeah. It's such a, it's such as like, it's, it's an interesting conversation.
And I think that we're the more that we have it and the louder we roar,
(21:05):
the more impact that we're going to be able to have.
And especially like on our next generations.
You know, my daughter is 13 and all about the skin care and all the stuff that these kids are into.
And I'm very aware of like what she's putting on her face and the things that
she's, you know, engaging in at this level, because that's what's going to change it.
(21:26):
I know. I mean, we're seeing so many studies now about the products that kids are exposed to.
And I mean, when they're younger, they're even more susceptible to all of the
chemicals and things that will affect their hormone changes and everything.
So if you can't reach women, you can usually reach women through talking about
their kids' health. Oh, yeah.
(21:46):
100%. So this health summit, and the cool thing about this, not only are you
bringing this in one day.
Like this is a heavy lift one day, but like morning to night covering all the
basis, how can people get information about coming to the health center?
(22:07):
Well, I can definitely send you, we can post the website in the show notes and
you can always go to my Instagram at Dr. Chantal Lunderville.
And I have that link in my bio and I post a lot about it.
So you can find Find it there or on my website, which is www.drchantallenderville.com.
(22:30):
And find more information. DM me anything you need.
I also love to just interact with my audience a lot. I think a lot of nurses
message me about getting into aesthetics.
I have my academy. I get a lot of pre-meds who ask me questions,
which is why I launched my podcast.
So I am in the DMs. I am in the message requests.
(22:51):
You are in there, girl. How else do we know what people want and that they're asking for?
It's like, I think you can come to and say, oh, I think everyone needs to know
X, but then people are asking you for Y.
I'm a firm believer in listening to your audience and your patients,
what they want. Let's talk a little bit about your podcast. Yes.
(23:11):
Because I was checking out some of your episodes and you're bringing in the straight scope.
I try. I try. I'm playing the medical tea. Like, first of all,
that's the best name ever. It's good. Yes. Oh, thank you.
I was always that resident and medical student who was like,
is anyone else really clinically depressed?
And I felt like I was the only one being like, am I the only one that's really struggling?
(23:36):
And I think a lot of people appreciated that I was more honest about how I was
feeling Because I think there's a pressure in our industry and a lot of different
industries to pretend you're perfect, you have it all together.
Maybe it's that professionalism that goes into it, which is great.
I think professionalism definitely has its place. But I think now our generations
(23:58):
are really asking for like, just keep it real. Just be honest about what's going on.
And I find that that is my strength. And I always try to tell pre-meds like,
yeah, I didn't fail a class, but I was going to get a D.
So I dropped the class and I couldn't sleep. I thought I wasn't going to get into medical school.
(24:20):
And there's this constant pressure to feel like you need to be perfect.
And I think it sets people up for imposter syndrome and not going after their dreams.
So I saw the feedback from pre-meds online.
And so I said, okay, I'm going to create more pre-med content.
I'm going to create this podcast and bring on doctors that I wish I saw when
I was a pre-med ones that are real people, but they're still making a real impact
(24:42):
and they're not perfect.
Well, and keeping it real, I think adds so much more validity to you as a,
as a professional and you as a service provider and you as a human being that
people can really connect with because when people just see,
I mean, I, I think about doctors and I always kind of think of them as that
stoic, like they don't have any problems.
You know, you go in the doctor's office and you don't want to be judged or you
(25:05):
don't want to answer a question wrong because you're like, shit,
what is she going home and saying about me?
But to bring this real element to the the table i think is really cool because
it does really help us to see like you guys are just normal people like us that
have struggles and go through your own shit so kudos i mean it's it's a great
thing that you're doing it's spilling the tea girl.
(25:27):
That's that's what we try to do and we
all just agree that nobody wants to answer the question of how
many alcoholic drinks do you have in a week like
nobody wants to answer stop asking that
question just don't like no there's always
the questions that you're like well how do i want to answer this
you know but but the really right answer you need to
(25:48):
to answer the questions because i i think that they don't care because they
see so many people all day you're not the person they're thinking about right
i do want to i do want to touch you talk about spreading your reach even further
i want to touch also on dr c's academy yes you know business again spreading Spreading the reach,
creating business opportunities,
(26:09):
leaders in this arena.
Talk a little bit about how that got set up.
Oh, well, it became from the medical directorship.
I really, whenever you create a business, you have to think about what are like
the pain points of what you're selling.
And it wasn't really from a sales attitude, but I remember the first two years
I started my business, those were the most instructive and the hardest.
(26:31):
And I remember feeling like I didn't have anyone to rely on because I went from
UCSF where I had a ton of specialists all the time. We were working in a team
to starting my business where I was solving problems, just me,
myself and Google at 2 a.m.
And that's how it is. That's really how it is.
A wonderful friend that comes in multiple languages.
(26:54):
Exactly. And then add on top of that, doing medical procedures and being like,
Like, did I do the right thing? Is this normal?
What should I do for follow-up? Like I had this patient who had an anxiety attack
after she got Botox for the first time.
And she called me 10 times. I woke up to like all of these phone calls and she's
told me like, your Botox gave me like all these symptoms.
(27:16):
And it was a whole thing. It was probably one of the hardest things.
The hardest experiences I had in my first years of business.
And I consulted a neurologist and all these different specialists and they said,
no, she had a panic attack.
You did nothing wrong, et cetera, et cetera.
And so I said, I can't imagine, I'm a well-trained doctor going through this.
(27:38):
I can't imagine nurses starting their spas and having issues like this and they
have no one to call. That's really unsafe and also terrible.
So it's very, very scary. And the medical spa spa world is very unregulated.
Even though California is a state that's highly regulated, which is good,
not just anyone can inject, it has to be an RN or higher.
(28:00):
Nurses are starting these medical spas with medical directors that they don't
even know, they don't even talk to, they don't have protocols.
There's spas opening that are unlicensed.
Dr. Mike just had that guest on his show who got a very serious infection from that.
So in my mind, I said, if I'm having a hard hard time. I want to help people
who might be in a similar situation.
(28:21):
So that's when I started doing the medical directorship.
And then there was, I got so many people asking me to be their director.
And I was like, I can't supervise everybody.
And I also cannot supervise out of state. So how can I make something that you
know exactly how I would launch, how you should launch your spot in a compliant
way? Who are the lawyers you can talk to?
Who are the accountants and tax people you can talk to? Because I made all the mistakes.
(28:45):
Like I made all the mistakes. mistakes learn from
my mistakes I will show you the way I will show you the way so I created my
courses it's fantastic like there's nothing out there like that no there's not
there is nothing like that and I think that you are just something to keep an eye on Dr.
(29:06):
C bringing it all to us in a way to help us you know be a little smarter look
a little better and hopefully you know understand that we're not alone in this journey called life.
So thank you so much for sharing you with us. We hope that everybody this week
gets out there and is inspired.
I have my own mic. Hello and welcome to Inspired, your grown-up girl talk.
I'm Stacey Fleece with Samantha Tredelius for some fun girl talk.
More she brands, amazing entrepreneurs.
How are you, by the way? I'm doing really well. I got a new light,
so I'm a little brighter than usual. I'm kind of adjusting. I like the bright.
(00:20):
You know, I'm just, you inspired me to kind of up the game with the new mic and the new lighting.
So, you know, I'm over here just working through it, which is super great.
Our guest today can help us to also talk about ways we can look better.
Yeah, speaking of brightening and lightening. All the way around.
So we have with us today, Dr. Chantal Lunderville. Chantal, how are you today? Amazing.
(00:44):
You are, and I've said this before, I love the meandering journey that takes
multiple turns and twists as you work through your career path, right?
So you, I think you exemplify that more than some others.
You are a, let's just say a board certified physician.
(01:04):
You actually studied and did residency at grownup schools, big time schools, UCLA, UCSF.
So no, this is, you are not a shrinking violet in the medical practice.
No, I said, what's the top? I want to go there. there.
As you should, and you you nailed it, you nailed it.
(01:27):
And then and you you were in in practice for a period of time.
But I think this is interesting.
You said that you left the modern healthcare system because you didn't feel
that they really supported they as an industry supported,
women's wellness, which I we've had that as a theme, a regular theme really,
fairly recently that keeps coming up.
(01:48):
So tell us a little bit about your experience in that arena.
Well, happy to be here. Thank you so much for the work that you do with Sparkle
Foundation and Uplifting Women's Voices.
There's so many instances where I can say I was disillusioned,
but really I went to UCSF and UCLA and was in a women's health fellowship at UCSF.
(02:11):
And I myself had never been more unhealthy.
And so I had to really take a step back and say, okay, I am a doctor now.
How do I want to live my life? And I basically was like, I haven't slept in 15 years.
I haven't slept a good night's sleep. I barely see my friends.
(02:32):
I never work out. And so it was really sort of my own wellness journey that I embarked on.
And then along the way, it was mainly experimental. I just followed my curiosity.
I left the Women's Hall of Fellowship, So I disappointed a lot of people,
which is a theme in sometimes when we take care of ourselves,
you're going to disappoint people.
So that doesn't feel great, but you have to be true to yourself.
(02:55):
I left. I ended up starting a concierge business in the Bay Area doing Botox
and filler, and I didn't even connect Botox and filler to wellness.
At that time, it was mainly how do I want to take care of women?
And I started off seeing women in their homes.
I did Botox parties and it was like a very organic way to grow my business.
But it allowed me a few years to sort of experiment with how do I want to see
(03:18):
women, longer appointments,
seeing women in their homes, seeing women with their friends,
having sort of this anti-clinic approach to how do I meet women where they are.
And that kind of spawned everything else in my career.
I dig it. I dig it. So women's, you know, wellness and women's,
you know, services in the medical space because you're firsthand in there.
(03:40):
I mean, is it I always kind of feel like we're not being heard a lot of times
with the things that we actually need, want and desire.
And those that are doing it like yourself are in such a like niche practice
because it's not really adopted across the board.
What do you say to that? Like just as an industry? Yeah.
(04:00):
Well, I will say from being on the other side of it and being in a highly academic
place where it's like, oh, this is the best of the best.
But women that would come into our clinic and like when I was a resident and
I would talk to my attendings and I'd be like, yeah, she's been doing her own
like research and supplements and going to this holistic doctor.
And we would all just kind of roll our eyes because you're, yes,
(04:22):
like you're. You know what it is? It's the word holistic. Everyone's like, okay.
Already doctors are like, just bring Berkeley right into it.
Let's just bust out the Birkenstocks. Let's go.
And I was also on that train of thought because I was like, this means it's
going to make my job harder. She's not going to listen to me.
(04:44):
And so I think it's not like black or white, it's us versus doctors.
It's more of like doctors have a very constrained time limit.
They also can only really do what's ordered for insurance, what's reimbursed,
what's supported by the clinic.
You're not really taught to sort of go off on your own like,
(05:04):
oh, if you want to learn how to support women in like a unique way to build
your own practice, you kind of have to do that on your own.
If you go through the modern medical system, training, residency to meet all
the requirements to, you know, pass your boards and all that.
You have, you are trained.
Sorry, my dog is going wild.
So you're, you're sort of trained. Mine going wild. Yeah. Really?
(05:30):
This is a normal position every day. Oh my God. I didn't realize that is your dog. Yeah.
So that's all, that's all to say that it's no one's fault except sort of how
the health system is set up right now.
But I think women have to,
have their own voice like that that it's like
(05:51):
you said the disillusionment that the health care system doesn't speak for
us anymore the health care system doesn't even train for us i i i think i brought
this up before that i follow this physician who is very big in menopause and
and such and and the education around that and she had made and she's an ob
she's a state licensed ob B, board certified.
(06:13):
And she said at one point that in her entire academic career in medicine,
I think one hour was spent on teaching about menopause.
One hour. So she said, this is great. Like 100% of women are going to go through
it. Women are 50% of the population.
100% will go through it. And one hour was spent on the education around this. That's awful. awful.
(06:39):
It's really, really terrible. And I mean, that's part of, so our last event
that we had, we had one of our sponsors, Suzanne, she's a holistic nutritionist.
She talked about how our hormones change at different phases of our lives and menopause.
And the reaction in the crowd that I've been seeing is that women just feel hurt for the first time.
(07:00):
And that's so, So that's undeniable.
And so we sort of followed this reaction and we created an event all around
menopause and even things like fertility,
things where we're sort of told a certain thing in our doctor's office and we're
hearing all sorts of other things from our friends, our mom.
(07:20):
Like they're just two separate worlds. And we were like, how do we help bridge
the gap? I feel like the doctors have this just sort of script.
And it's not it's not personalized. It's not specific to any issues that I'm
having or Samantha's having or whoever.
It's just the script. This is what they say to you when you're this age.
This is what they say to you when you're having that problem. That's what they say.
(07:41):
And then, like you said, we go out and we start doing our own research and thank God for the Internet.
And honestly, like, I mean, for all people want to say about social media,
like for me personally, I mean, perimenopause has not been my friend and I've
been very vocal about that.
But it's been such an education, a self-education journey for me because I have
(08:03):
not been able to get the answers anyplace else.
So and I feel like all that, like you said, back to all the way back to fertility
or, you know, even in our early health issues, issues, I shouldn't even say
that. It's just our life moments, our healthy moments.
I'm having a moment. Then men do. Men don't really have these moments.
(08:24):
Right. We do. We have very specific stages.
And I just don't feel like the medical community is built for it.
I completely agree. We don't, and we, you know, we kind of do get scripts.
Like we do get scripts of, okay, this is what we say to a woman after childbirth.
(08:44):
Like, you know, you're, you're going to feel off this. You need to ask for more support.
These are, these are the sort of the normal things. And these are the not normal things.
And a lot of that is based off of risk based off of, oh, let's make sure she's not bleeding too much.
Let's make sure she doesn't have any tears that we've missed.
Like we have a running list of things that we want to make sure we don't miss.
But in terms of holistically caring for her, I would say most of us do want to do more.
(09:10):
We just don't, we're not really set up to do that. We're like,
okay, call it social work.
Nobody told me that when I left the hospital four days after I had my child
that I would still be wearing maternity clothes.
Nobody told me that. Nobody told me that I was going to be wearing mesh panties,
but that's another, that's a whole nother storyline for another day.
So you said to hell with the modern medical clinic moment, and you said,
(09:33):
I'm going to go do something different.
So tell us what you went out and did as a result of you leaving the Women's Center. her?
So I, it sort of just started with, again, that curiosity, built a concierge
practice myself going with my little medical bag, driving all over the Bay Area.
And that was kind of my, everyone has their like Amazon in the garage moment,
(09:56):
you know, like that was my moment.
And for two years, I just went and I saw women and I talked to them and I listened
to them. and eventually my following grew.
I wanted to open a physical location, moved back to Orange County where my family's
from because I didn't want to settle long-term away from them and built a medical spa.
(10:17):
And then I got hit up by a lot of nurses who said, can you be my medical director?
And at that time, I was very scared to supervise an injector that I wasn't physically
there all all the time, but they were close enough by that I could go check on them.
And I really saw an opportunity in that space to supervise women creating businesses.
(10:39):
And so while the traditional medical system looked at them and saw,
wow, tons of liability, this is new.
I really saw it as a way to foster single moms opening their own business.
So now you're taking your medical background and now you're not only improving the health of women.
And when I say health, I mean, even the mental health and how they feel about
(11:01):
themselves and the self-confidence.
But now you're building entrepreneurs and you're building leadership strength
and, you know, women lifting.
This is like, did you ever think your medical degree was going to lead you to this?
So actually, I chose medicine because it was a platform to do a lot of other things.
And I always tell people looking to looking, they ask for career advice.
(11:24):
And I say, you know, a lot of doctors I know are very burned out because,
again, they're dealing with constraints and taking care of people and they're working in a system that,
maybe isn't structured for how they want to deliver care. And I always say,
think about how you do want to take care of people.
Don't work in the confines of what's given to you. Be the first to change it.
So yes, I thought about being a journalist. I thought about being an art curator.
(11:49):
I thought about being so many things. And then I saw a professor in my college
who was a doctor, and she was teaching about various types of clinics that you can set up abroad.
And she she wrote books and I was like, wow, she's a doctor,
but she's making an impact in her own way.
And I said, I want to be a doctor and have that be a stepping stone.
So that's what I always encourage people to do. I mean, especially in this economy,
(12:11):
you really have to create your own opportunities and think about how do I want
to use this in a way to help people?
Like I worked with patients, you know, I did practice after I graduated.
While I was building my business, I was still working at Kaiser per diem.
I was working at Department of Public Health in their free clinics per diem.
And I kind of was just taking all of that in.
(12:34):
And I love working with patients, but I thought, I also want to work on a bigger
scale. I want to work in events.
I want to have these conversations with rooms full of people, not just one person.
So I also encourage women and people just in their career to look at,
to think outside the box in terms of how they want to make an impact.
I dig it. And I think it's very interesting because it's definitely not the
norm when it comes to people in your field.
(12:56):
I got to assume that there was probably some times where you were like really
digging deep to like get the courage to go and do these things and walk on a
different path than, you know, what you were supposed to do.
You know, what were some of those hurdles and some of those,
you know, late night thoughts that kind of kept you going and how did you overcome them?
Because I mean, we all go through it as business owners, but I can imagine because
(13:18):
you were going in such a different direction than, you know,
years of schooling was telling you, you're supposed to do this girl.
You're not supposed to be doing that.
Yes. Do you know, I think that book, there's a quote that sometimes the,
the urge to break open is bigger than your fear of, I'm, I'm messing up the
quote now, but it's basically like your,
(13:40):
let your urge to break open, be bigger than your fear.
And that's how I felt I would rather risk everything and and deal with uncertainty than.
Work under someone telling me how I need to take
care of people and I love that that maybe it's my fear
of authority yeah but I would rather
(14:00):
it's just you have to choose your problems are your problems going
to be okay let me figure this out how to manage a team let me figure
out how to do this thing or is it how do I manage this boss that doesn't quite
understand me like so and I come from an entrepreneur family so I really saw
my parents working weekends and evenings my dad built a construction business
(14:21):
from the time I was six years old so I never really saw.
I always wanted to be that problem solver for a company rather than being told what to do.
And doctors, and it's unfortunate that I think 50 years ago,
we were able to run our own practices and have a lot of autonomy.
But now it's corporations that are telling us how to do our job.
(14:44):
Doctors don't get to run their businesses. Insurance companies run their businesses.
Absolutely. And I think this is what people don't understand.
It's crazy. I love that though. Choose your problems. I'm going to,
I'm about to think about that one.
And then you took a step even further in how can I impact more than one person at a time?
(15:04):
How can I get in front of a room of people?
And you created your own opportunities.
Let's talk a little bit about the Health Summit retreat.
So May 19th in Manhattan Beach, and I'm a medical director for Beam Aesthetic
Lounge, and they are in Manhattan Beach.
She services a lot of local moms, love her practice. She's been in dermatology over 10 years.
(15:29):
And I wanted to do something to service her community and support her spa as
well as double down on what the feedback we got at our last event.
Women are so hungry for health topics that really speak to their experiences
rather than like, yeah, this is percent.
Yeah. Like in medical school, it's like, okay, this is evidence-based.
This is what you can recommend without fear of being sued, right?
(15:54):
And so at this last event, just seeing the feedback, the energy that women gave
when we talked about these things, I was like, okay, let's do an event.
All about this. So I'm going to open up the day talking about this very thing.
What are things that we are learning more recently about longevity?
We look at the blue zones.
What are things that we're learning about egg quality? I read this book,
(16:16):
It Starts With The Egg, and it completely blew my mind.
And a lot of women that struggle with fertility have gotten so much benefit from reading this book.
And it's based on biochemical research.
It's a biochemist who wrote it who was was having fertility issues.
So she looks more at the biochemical processes, the hormones in the body rather
than doctors looking at the, does it increase live births?
(16:40):
Does it increase healthy pregnancies?
So the way that doctors look at the fertility endpoints are different than what
a biochemical researcher looks at it.
She's going to say, oh, the beauty product that you're using that has silicone
in it is going to negatively impact the egg.
So I'm interested in what are those smaller things that are in our environment
(17:02):
that are influencing our egg quality that later on look at can influence fertility.
So I introduced some of those topics in terms of things to look out for,
things to improve your egg quality, and then some of the things that happen
during menopause and things to look out for.
And then we transitioned to, we have have Dr. Kang and Dr.
(17:22):
Ho from Reproductive Partners, and they're going to be talking about how to
test your ovarian reserve.
Kind of what is your anatomy? What are your cycles every month?
And what do they mean for you?
Because a lot of women were only taught like, don't get pregnant,
but they're not taught about their anatomy and like why they get a period,
what happens during menopause.
And then Suzanne is going to be talking about nutrition, lifestyle to support
(17:43):
hormonal changes, particularly during menopause.
She's also doing a cooking demo, like a meal prep demo.
Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. So everything's very interactive.
And then we will also have a panel in Clean Beauty with Cassandra McClure.
Clean Beauty founders, a lot of them went through their own health crises.
In order to formulate products that don't have synthetic chemicals,
(18:06):
that don't have these emulsifiers and things that interfere with your fertility, your hormones.
So we're bringing on women that have had their own experiences as well as experts that get it.
Well, and it's interesting because I believe it or not, whether we want to believe
it or not, everything ties in together.
So like, honestly, the shit that we're putting in our mouths,
(18:27):
the shit that we're putting on our face, all of these things. Well said.
And effect on all of the parts of us and, you know, getting back to that holistic moment, right?
The wholeness of these beings that we are.
I mean, every little thing that we're doing really does have an impact.
And kudos to you for bringing it all together in one place for people to really,
(18:48):
you know, be able to soak in because everything you're saying is things that
are women are talking about everywhere.
And I think it's like a gaslighting moment where we're like, we're not crazy.
No. Oh my God. Yes. Yes, we are not 100% a gaslighting moment.
Like, no, no, it wasn't just me all this time. I thought it was just me. It's not just me.
(19:09):
It's not just me. And there's a whole community of women and experts that are
now catching on to where what what cleaning product should I buy so that my,
you know, it doesn't affect my kids.
And even there's been so much research linked to like, like cleaning products
and neurological changes later in life, like Parkinson's disease.
And And now we're having the evidence.
(19:31):
So we need to ask for more. And like, we're entitled to that.
Well, and I think that medicine for like, as a practice should be looking at
these things on the front end, instead of just trying to bandaid them with a medication.
When you go to like, why are you in this position? You know,
why have you, you know, have these ailments?
Is it because of these different factors in your environment or things that you're doing?
(19:54):
I mean, not just the normal stuff that we know is not good for us,
but like the things that we're not even thinking about.
That we gave our public trust to these companies.
And now we're like, maybe they don't have my best interests in mind.
Like, how do I become a more educated consumer?
And when we target women, it changes generations.
We know this from family medicine, that when we influence the health and support
(20:18):
and well-being of the mother, generally she passes that on to her kids.
She creates the budgets, the meals for the household.
So women are really the change makers to improving society.
Women rule the world. I feel like whether or not you all want to believe it,
we are here doing things behind the scenes.
I feel like that's just like right there. I like, I just want to pause it right there.
(20:44):
We are the change makers. I don't care who doesn't want to believe it.
You can go fuck yourself. Cause literally I didn't know this was that type of
podcast. Oh, it is. Oh, it is.
It is a hundred percent, but even in real.
Yeah. It's such a, it's such as like, it's, it's an interesting conversation.
And I think that we're the more that we have it and the louder we roar,
(21:05):
the more impact that we're going to be able to have.
And especially like on our next generations.
You know, my daughter is 13 and all about the skin care and all the stuff that these kids are into.
And I'm very aware of like what she's putting on her face and the things that
she's, you know, engaging in at this level, because that's what's going to change it.
(21:26):
I know. I mean, we're seeing so many studies now about the products that kids are exposed to.
And I mean, when they're younger, they're even more susceptible to all of the
chemicals and things that will affect their hormone changes and everything.
So if you can't reach women, you can usually reach women through talking about
their kids' health. Oh, yeah.
(21:46):
100%. So this health summit, and the cool thing about this, not only are you
bringing this in one day.
Like this is a heavy lift one day, but like morning to night covering all the
basis, how can people get information about coming to the health center?
(22:07):
Well, I can definitely send you, we can post the website in the show notes and
you can always go to my Instagram at Dr. Chantal Lunderville.
And I have that link in my bio and I post a lot about it.
So you can find Find it there or on my website, which is www.drchantallenderville.com.
(22:30):
And find more information. DM me anything you need.
I also love to just interact with my audience a lot. I think a lot of nurses
message me about getting into aesthetics.
I have my academy. I get a lot of pre-meds who ask me questions,
which is why I launched my podcast.
So I am in the DMs. I am in the message requests.
(22:51):
You are in there, girl. How else do we know what people want and that they're asking for?
It's like, I think you can come to and say, oh, I think everyone needs to know
X, but then people are asking you for Y.
I'm a firm believer in listening to your audience and your patients,
what they want. Let's talk a little bit about your podcast. Yes.
(23:11):
Because I was checking out some of your episodes and you're bringing in the straight scope.
I try. I try. I'm playing the medical tea. Like, first of all,
that's the best name ever. It's good. Yes. Oh, thank you.
I was always that resident and medical student who was like,
is anyone else really clinically depressed?
And I felt like I was the only one being like, am I the only one that's really struggling?
(23:36):
And I think a lot of people appreciated that I was more honest about how I was
feeling Because I think there's a pressure in our industry and a lot of different
industries to pretend you're perfect, you have it all together.
Maybe it's that professionalism that goes into it, which is great.
I think professionalism definitely has its place. But I think now our generations
(23:58):
are really asking for like, just keep it real. Just be honest about what's going on.
And I find that that is my strength. And I always try to tell pre-meds like,
yeah, I didn't fail a class, but I was going to get a D.
So I dropped the class and I couldn't sleep. I thought I wasn't going to get into medical school.
(24:20):
And there's this constant pressure to feel like you need to be perfect.
And I think it sets people up for imposter syndrome and not going after their dreams.
So I saw the feedback from pre-meds online.
And so I said, okay, I'm going to create more pre-med content.
I'm going to create this podcast and bring on doctors that I wish I saw when
I was a pre-med ones that are real people, but they're still making a real impact
(24:42):
and they're not perfect.
Well, and keeping it real, I think adds so much more validity to you as a,
as a professional and you as a service provider and you as a human being that
people can really connect with because when people just see,
I mean, I, I think about doctors and I always kind of think of them as that
stoic, like they don't have any problems.
You know, you go in the doctor's office and you don't want to be judged or you
(25:05):
don't want to answer a question wrong because you're like, shit,
what is she going home and saying about me?
But to bring this real element to the the table i think is really cool because
it does really help us to see like you guys are just normal people like us that
have struggles and go through your own shit so kudos i mean it's it's a great
thing that you're doing it's spilling the tea girl.
(25:27):
That's that's what we try to do and we
all just agree that nobody wants to answer the question of how
many alcoholic drinks do you have in a week like
nobody wants to answer stop asking that
question just don't like no there's always
the questions that you're like well how do i want to answer this
you know but but the really right answer you need to
(25:48):
to answer the questions because i i think that they don't care because they
see so many people all day you're not the person they're thinking about right
i do want to i do want to touch you talk about spreading your reach even further
i want to touch also on dr c's academy yes you know business again spreading Spreading the reach,
creating business opportunities,
(26:09):
leaders in this arena.
Talk a little bit about how that got set up.
Oh, well, it became from the medical directorship.
I really, whenever you create a business, you have to think about what are like
the pain points of what you're selling.
And it wasn't really from a sales attitude, but I remember the first two years
I started my business, those were the most instructive and the hardest.
(26:31):
And I remember feeling like I didn't have anyone to rely on because I went from
UCSF where I had a ton of specialists all the time. We were working in a team
to starting my business where I was solving problems, just me,
myself and Google at 2 a.m.
And that's how it is. That's really how it is.
A wonderful friend that comes in multiple languages.
(26:54):
Exactly. And then add on top of that, doing medical procedures and being like,
Like, did I do the right thing? Is this normal?
What should I do for follow-up? Like I had this patient who had an anxiety attack
after she got Botox for the first time.
And she called me 10 times. I woke up to like all of these phone calls and she's
told me like, your Botox gave me like all these symptoms.
(27:16):
And it was a whole thing. It was probably one of the hardest things.
The hardest experiences I had in my first years of business.
And I consulted a neurologist and all these different specialists and they said,
no, she had a panic attack.
You did nothing wrong, et cetera, et cetera.
And so I said, I can't imagine, I'm a well-trained doctor going through this.
(27:38):
I can't imagine nurses starting their spas and having issues like this and they
have no one to call. That's really unsafe and also terrible.
So it's very, very scary. And the medical spa spa world is very unregulated.
Even though California is a state that's highly regulated, which is good,
not just anyone can inject, it has to be an RN or higher.
(28:00):
Nurses are starting these medical spas with medical directors that they don't
even know, they don't even talk to, they don't have protocols.
There's spas opening that are unlicensed.
Dr. Mike just had that guest on his show who got a very serious infection from that.
So in my mind, I said, if I'm having a hard hard time. I want to help people
who might be in a similar situation.
(28:21):
So that's when I started doing the medical directorship.
And then there was, I got so many people asking me to be their director.
And I was like, I can't supervise everybody.
And I also cannot supervise out of state. So how can I make something that you
know exactly how I would launch, how you should launch your spot in a compliant
way? Who are the lawyers you can talk to?
Who are the accountants and tax people you can talk to? Because I made all the mistakes.
(28:45):
Like I made all the mistakes. mistakes learn from
my mistakes I will show you the way I will show you the way so I created my
courses it's fantastic like there's nothing out there like that no there's not
there is nothing like that and I think that you are just something to keep an eye on Dr.
(29:06):
C bringing it all to us in a way to help us you know be a little smarter look
a little better and hopefully you know understand that we're not alone in this journey called life.
So thank you so much for sharing you with us. We hope that everybody this week
gets out there and is inspired.
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