July 22, 2025 • 36 mins
Are your book goals being crushed by burnout or brain fog? What if the missing piece isn’t time management—but biology? In this episode, Dr. Partha Nandi, bestselling author, physician, and host of the syndicated show Ask Dr. Nandi, reveals how energy, focus, and health directly fuel long-term author success. Your energy, not your platform, might be the real reason your book isn’t done.
Whether you're writing, pitching, launching, or speaking—this episode breaks down the five science-backed lifestyle shifts that protect your energy and build real visibility. These aren’t hacks. They’re habits for sustainable success.
🎧 If you’re ready to protect your focus and burnout-proof your platform, hit play now.
What You’ll Learn:
- The 5 lifestyle pillars behind every productive, visible author
- How energy biology—not willpower—fuels creativity and consistent output
- Why your book goals need purpose (not just more hustle)
Resources Mentioned:
- Dr. Nandi's website: https://www.askdrnandi.com
- Dr. Nandi's book: Ask Dr. Nandi: 5 Steps to Becoming Your Own #HealthHero for Longevity, Well-Being, and a Joyful Life: https://bookshop.org/a/55773/9781501156823
- Dr. Nandi’s book: Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain - The Five Pillars of Enhancing Your Gut and Optimizing Your Cognitive Health: https://bookshop.org/a/55773/9798887701790
- Connect Dr. Nandi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/askdrnandi/
- Follow Dr. Nandi on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AskDrNandiChannel
- Book Reco: Indistractable - How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life: https://bookshop.org/a/55773/9781948836531
Timestamps Highlights:
- 08:44 – Why biology, not time, is your energy edge
- 19:15 – The 5 wellness pillars for sustainable visibility
- 36:20 – How purpose increases focus and longevity
- 48:50 – Health habits that power media presence
- 53:12 – What every author can do today to gain clarity and momentum
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Here’s how:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Nandi (00:00):
Even if people don't agree with you, right?
(00:02):
There are many people I'm sureyou don't agree with and I don't
agree with, but you can tell thepassion and you can understand
their sense of purpose thatthat's coming through.
And whether you like it or not,that will attract you to them.
Allison (00:41):
Welcome back to the Author's Edge.
And listen, I hear from youevery week that you are
inspired, but you're stillcaught up of I don't know how
I'm going to do this, or I hearthis a lot.
I'm dealing with a healthsituation.
I plan to take this effort backup in the summer or maybe in the
fall when I'm feeling better.
This happens all the time.
(01:03):
People have health setbacks.
They have mindset setbacks.
And today, we're going to diveinto them really quickly because
Dr.
Partha Nandi is here with uswho's first of all, he's been on
Oprah, he's a keynote speaker,he's a gastroenterologist, and
(01:25):
he got his start being this bigtime.
Bestselling author and superstarspeaker because he had a medical
practice and he startedcontributing to his local media.
Baby steps.
people.
before I start talking way toomuch, Dr.
(01:46):
Andy, thank you so much forbeing with us.
Dr. Nandi (01:48):
Awesome.
Thank you for having me.
You're amazing.
Just, I spent a few minutes withyou and you're just a breath of
fresh air, so thanks for havingme on.
Allison (01:54):
Gosh, thanks.
I'm going to flirt now.
It's 90,000 degrees here inBoston today, so I'm getting
flushed because I have theGerman red skin and we can't
help it.
Okay.
So, listen I'm sure you seetelltale signs all the time when
you see people making decisionswhen they are pursuing
(02:19):
something, but their health andtheir energy gets in the way,
especially energy.
So, what's that mistake that yousee that SAPs energy?
Dr. Nandi (02:30):
Yeah, that's an important question, right?
Because especially, I'm a doc,right?
And people who are physiciansand doctors are, we're famous
for this.
And what happens is that I thinkI'll let you know my story that
when energy comes in, energy isfinite, you only have a certain
amount of it.
To me, staying on point, stayingwithin what you're doing at the
(02:51):
time that you're doing it.
Being mindful is absolutely thekey because what happens is that
it's the classic, if you've everbeen in a party, Allison, where
you're talking to someone andthey seem riveted, but every so
often they're looking beyond youto find the next coolest person
that they can talk to.
They're in your conversation,but they're going the next step.
(03:14):
So what I mean by that is, soyou have to first define for
yourself if you're aprofessional, talking about
these rockstar people.
We talked before we got on air.
There's so many people that aremassively talented and they want
to spread that knowledge, thattalent elsewhere.
But they get stymied.
They get bogged down.
And I think part of it is reallybeing present at the time that
(03:35):
you're doing whatever you'redoing at the very moment you're
thinking about it.
So, for example, if you'rewriting a book, then you
basically write the book.
You're not answering texts,you're not walking over to the
fridge to talk to your childrenyou have to be mindful and be
focused and be goal oriented Sowhen you go back, you say, okay,
(03:55):
first of all what is it that Iwant to accomplish?
I tell, when I have my keynotes,even when I'm talking to my
family or talking to mypatients, it's very similar.
I ask them, what is it that youwant to accomplish?
What is it that to me, is yourpurpose.
Once you have your purposedefined.
If you want to, for example, dowhat I'm doing, which is do a
television show write a book,write bestselling books and
(04:19):
being able to be on social anddigital media.
Why are you doing it?
I know for me it started veryearly when I was a child, I
nearly died of rheumatic heartdisease.
It's a disease not a lot ofpeople know about.
I had heart failure.
And as a child, my parents wentfrom doctor to doctor trying to
find a solution until we found adoctor, Dr.
Chandra Shaker.
This is in India.
(04:39):
I was born in India and came tothe United States at age nine.
So Dr.
Chandra Shaker saved my life.
That then propelled me to say, Iwant to do what this guy is
doing.
So I became a physician.
And then after I became aphysician, my biggest hero, my
dad suffered a devastatingstroke.
And then I became, a patientadvocate.
So my dad, who was just, largerthan life to me, he was a
(05:01):
brilliant person and hebasically became, dependent on
myself and my family.
So what I learned at that timewas people need to understand
how to be able to not onlynavigate the healthcare system,
but try to figure out ways inwhich they don't suffer the same
fate as my dad.
So to me, we coined that phrasebeing a health hero, which is
(05:24):
being your own health advocate,really making your health and
wellness your focus.
And when we took on that goal,when I say we, it was myself, my
team, my wife is my partner inlife and we said we're going to
reach people and help themunderstand how to make health
and wellness a part of theirlife.
We developed a five pillarmethodology, which is
(05:45):
purpose-driven living, havingnutrition, having movement,
having spirituality andcommunity.
Those five pillars driveeverything we do and that's the
method that we use.
But it goes back to saying, Iwant people to really have an
idea of what to do to be able tolive their best life.
That's my motivation.
(06:06):
That's when I get up in themorning, I jump out of bed
because why?
I know what I want toaccomplish.
You have to find that.
It's the first step, right?
In order to not zap your energy.
It's the first step havingpurpose-driven living.
And I think that if you have apurpose in mind, then you know,
other things just fall by thewayside.
You don't sit there and pick upthis thing and say, oh, let me
(06:27):
look at, something for an hourand just mindlessly, because you
want to be able to accomplishwhatever goal you're having.
So have purpose-driven living.
But then to me, energy andperforming at the highest level.
It's not just like pithy sayingsor, rah, you can do it.
It's about biology.
It's really about optimizingyour biology.
(06:49):
What I mean by that is usingyour five pillars that I talked
about, purpose defines it, ithelps your body really achieve
incredible things.
Why?
Because when you are notaimlessly wandering around
trying to find.
What you're doing, and you haveno idea, the cortisol level in
your body decreases, right?
So, when cortisol decreases,inflammation decreases.
(07:11):
When inflammation decreases,your focus in your mind
increases, your cardiovascularoutputs better.
You have less pain, you haveless fatigue, you have all the
things just from beingpurpose-driven and not being
aimless.
Multiple studies have shown justhaving purpose.
The second thing to me is, youknow what?
Having the right nutrition, andthat of course means the food
(07:33):
that you're eating to make sureyou're giving your body the
right fuel to be able to thenperform these things at your
best people who are leaders thatwant to be able to do more than
just show up.
They want to be able to expresstheir ideas to be able to
transform people's lives.
You need to have the right fuelto keep you going.
(07:53):
And when I say nutrition, I ofcourse mean getting the right
diet, getting enough hydration,but I also mean the input that
you get, right?
Like the books that you read,the people that you listen to,
the podcast, right?
Like you're listening to nowpodcasts, YouTube videos that
you're looking at that you getthe right nutrition to fuel you.
It's super important.
(08:15):
I think also movement.
Movement is key.
So, there are a lot of people inmy profession who just the only
thing they know is that you justoutwork people.
It's the classic American dream,right?
You just comment.
Allison (08:29):
Oh my gosh, everyone feels like that.
I'm not doing enough.
I see this person doing likethey're speaking at this
conference.
Maybe I should speak at thatconference.
Oh my gosh, stick to your butlike eyes on your own paper,
stick to your knitting.
The audience, the people theyserve are not the people you
(08:49):
serve.
And also your message is totallydifferent.
And just because you're in thesame peer group doesn't mean
you're the same.
And what you're saying though,about how being focused and
mindful about what you put intoyour body, your nogging, and the
body that we all live in reallyfeeds is the fuel for your
(09:14):
focus.
Dr. Nandi (09:16):
Correct.
You wouldn't put in diesel intoyour gasoline engine and then
expect it to just purr the wholeway through.
It's going to sputter and die.
We often put a lot of dieselinto our gasoline engines.
Allison (09:27):
I mean, thanksgiving Day itself is evidence of that.
Does anyone do anything afterThanksgiving, Turkey.
They wear looser clothes so thatthey can stuff themselves, like
the Turkey and then plan to takea nap.
That's a big day, bigThanksgiving day.
Dr. Nandi (09:45):
What you're doing is, if you look at the biology,
you're changing your microbiomewith the wrong input.
And what the microbiome is forthose of you may not know and
most of you do know, but it's atrillion member army that's in
your intestine.
And the microbiome we nowunderstand controls so much of
what you do.
And so much of your health.
And so when you talked about,Thanksgiving day, but for most
(10:07):
people, you know the amount ofstress that they have talking
about just what you did, whichis the FOMO fear that they're
not good enough, that somebodyelse is better, that they need
to be doing 12 differentpodcasts or 16 keynotes or
whatever it is.
But you stick to what you'redoing, but give yourself the
(10:27):
right tools, right?
So I said nutrition movement isreally important.
You have to be able to knowevery single day your body
changes.
With movement, your body'sentire biology changes with
movement, not only do you getmore strength, we understand
that and more stamina.
It changes your gut health, itchanges your brain health.
We now know multiple studiesthat show that the amount of
(10:50):
neurotransmitters which are thechemicals that change your
behavior.
For example, serotonin.
Serotonin is the feel-goodhormone that keeps you
motivated.
When you have more movement, Idon't mean, lifting 500 pounds
or running marathons.
A simple movement increases thatserotonin.
So I think if you do that, thelast two are just having
community, having like-mindedpeople, right?
(11:13):
Not Yes.
Men.
Yes.
like-minded people.
Like yourself saying, Hey, youknow what?
Because you have a community.
You're developing this communityand your community looks to you
to give them advice, give thatsupport is not only invigorating
for ideas, it's invigorating foryour body and biology, just like
purpose.
Community-based living decreasesthe amount of cortisol,
(11:36):
decreases all of the what wecall catecholamines things that
just get your body revved up, itdecreases, it gets you in a
sense of equilibrium.
If you have community in yourlife, there are multiple studies
that show that even just havingcommunity alone will be enough
to reduce multiple diseases,increase focus.
And the last one to me is veryimportant to spirituality.
(11:58):
When I tell people aboutspirituality, they often jump
right into religion, which isfine.
I'm religious.
If you are, that's great.
If you're not though,spirituality could just mean
taking a walk in the garden.
Could mean what I do, meditationevery day.
These are powerful tools.
Again, to do what?
To be able to preserve yourenergy, your vitality, so you
can preserve your version.
(12:20):
And I'll call it the AmericanDream because we're in America.
But I think it's a worldwidephenomena.
The American dream used to bethis out, hustle, outwork, don't
sleep, drink as many cups ofcoffee, do whatever you need to
do.
The new American dream to me isto really have a focus on
vitality where rest is asimportant as going nuts because
(12:42):
then it changes your biology,changes your focus so you can
accomplish the things that youwant to do.
Allison (12:47):
When you talk about protecting your health, what I
hear you saying is that focusingon your health, protecting your
health is actually how we canprotect our productivity.
That's right.
Because I know that you helpleaders and corporations and
associations really protect theculture of their teams by
(13:11):
protecting the individual andgiving them a welcome to focus
on their health.
No one thinks that the persontoiling 16 hours a day is the
one who's going to get thepromotion because they make it
look sweaty and hard and justlike a terrible task because it
(13:33):
is for them.
And also they never become moreproductive somehow.
Yeah.
You know, they make it look hardbecause they never rest.
They don't eat a grape, they'reeating out of their desk, just,
whatever crackers are left over.
Dr. Nandi (13:51):
But that's what we've been trained to do.
This is now 2025.
But generations have told peoplethat you have to do that.
And that's the antiquated idea.
We now know, for example, Ford ahundred years ago changed the
work week and actually becamemore productive.
And you can do that.
It's not about just toilinguntil you're done, like you said
(14:12):
it's looking at your biology andsaying, how can I be more
productive in a shorter periodof time?
But also understanding what itis you want to do so that when
you are productive, you aredoing the activities that really
forward your ideas.
They actually help you to beable to get that dream of yours
to be successful.
(14:33):
Because often if we don't havepurposeful thinking,
purpose-driven, living alongwith the caveats of having the
right inputs, you then are doingwork and you're doing productive
stuff, but it's not productivetowards what you want and what
you feel is important.
And when I talk to companies,each of these people that I'm
talking to are individuals, butcollectively, the entire company
(14:56):
goes around me, I don't have totell you how much turnover there
is.
I'm a board member on a companythat, that is their revenues
well over$200 million.
And we do these meetings,Allison, and they have these
board decks, meaning, you know,the notes.
Right?
On the appendix was employeewellness, satisfaction and
(15:17):
turnover.
And I said to them, there iszero chance of us as a company
to be able to succeed if we'renot looking at those parameters
of employers and employeehealth, our team members being
healthy.
And again, it's not about justmotivating people, it's about
looking at their biology to seewhat can we do to really be able
(15:39):
to optimize your activity.
Whether you're a physician thatwants to, then branch out and
write a book or do television,or if it's, you are somebody who
is working on the line.
And you want to be able to bemore active in your community to
be able to volunteer.
We all have different measuresof success, right?
I think whether each of thoseactivities are different than
(16:02):
your normal job or your normalact, your day.
And I think Sure.
When you make yourself moreproductive in using these.
These tools and skills, youbecome more fulfilled and you
resurrect your life.
And one of my friends who speaksand he talks about the buried
life, he talks about how yourlife can be buried and your
dreams can really be crushed.
(16:22):
I think if you use thismethodology of vitality, you can
then revitalize those activitiesthat are really important to
life and on the workplace.
Your team members will see youjust thrive on a personal level,
you'll feel incrediblysatisfied.
And then guess what?
Those people are not burned out.
They're not turning over.
You're not trying to train aperson every six months and your
(16:45):
company's going down the dumpsbecause you can't achieve the
kind of success you're achieving
Allison (16:51):
There is something so refreshing to hear you talk
about your experience on thisboard.
You don't know this about me,but I led media relations at
Pepsi and I led PR at Unilever,and employer branding at SaaS
Analytics, which was number oneon the Great Place to Work list,
(17:13):
two years running, which is aneffort I led.
And when the company went fromnumber 20 to number one.
On the Fortune best companies towork for list, but it's led by a
great place to work.
So the great place to work isthe company that does all the
analytics.
When we went from number 20 tonumber one, they had to double
(17:38):
the amount of recruiters in HRbecause the amount of
applications for each jobdoubled overnight like this.
And turnover went from, it wasalready very high because SAS
was so highly ranked.
It went from 97.9% to 99%.
(18:02):
So only 1% turnover.
So when I was at sas.
What we learned is that whenpeople understood not only their
job responsibility, but theimpact, the ripple effect it had
for the company, they had morepride in ownership, and they
(18:26):
achieved their goals faster.
When we say productivity, wedidn't mean they were able to
produce more things, but thegoal and the objective were met
with less fewer obstacles.
Less friction, because everyoneunderstood what their role was
(18:50):
and how it led to the purpose.
And when you were speaking aboutproductivity, what occurred to
me is that most people don'tactually understand what the end
goal is of their purpose.
They're thinking about themilestone that gets them there.
But your goal was so clearbecause you understood what
(19:11):
success looked like.
Dr. Nandi (19:12):
That's exactly right.
Allison (19:13):
Which is different.
Dr. Nandi (19:15):
For everybody, it is different for everybody.
And I love the fact that youbrought up these incredibly
giant companies that peoplewould not necessarily attribute
to having, employee health andemployee wellness as categories
that are important.
But you're absolutely right.
I think if we can do that.
Do you have a Wegmans where youare in your part of the world
(19:37):
like when store
Allison (19:39):
Yes.
Dr. Nandi (19:39):
It's an incredible story how when you pay attention
to the input nutritional inputsof the employees, what happens
to the productivity and whathappens to making those
employees really loyal to yourcompany, but also make their
lives enjoyable?
There are multiple examples ofhow when companies do this and
(20:00):
they do it for individuals.
Then the entire company not onlythrives, but the individual
thrives.
And then as a doctor, what Ilove is, here's the side effect.
They have less heart attacks,they have less autoimmune
disease.
They're not going to the doctorwith bloating, et cetera,
because as in my practice, topfive every single time of
(20:22):
reasons why people come and talkto me and they say, I was in the
office today and the lady camein with, bloating, discomfort,
left sided pain, which is almostintractable.
And I said, let's just talkabout, what it could be.
But tell me what's going on andwhen is it worse?
Almost always top five reasonswork and what happens at the
workplace, right?
(20:43):
My boss, my coworkers this womandid her administration.
She's a teacher and love thestudents, but the administration
just kills me.
So my point is that when weexpand to what happens in
people's lives, we spend moretime at work, traditionally,
most people do, than any otherplace.
And if we can revitalize, andthis is what I do in my talks,
(21:04):
that how can we revitalize theworkplace so that you can use
true biology, trueevidence-based biology to say if
we do these simple changes,right?
Then you can uplift the healthof the individual.
By the way, the side effect forthe company is that they do
really well because the fact isif they have happy employees
(21:26):
that are not burnt out, that arenot having a lot of turnover,
all you have to do is if youlook at I don't go to many fast
food restaurants, but if youever go to a Chick-fil-A, it's
always full.
It's not just the food.
The people there, behave in acertain way and there are
multiple places where people,when they're given the right
direction, Delta Airlines isone.
(21:48):
And they're not perfect.
But if you go there, the waythey treat their people with
multiple, avenues that theydirect them, I think people do
well.
To me, as a physician, I like itbecause their health, is also
uplifted.
And then it also increasesproductivity.
To me, it's not just about thecompany doing well, like you
talked about with Pepsi or anyof these giant companies.
(22:09):
Yeah.
It's also about uplifting theindividual.
Like I said, a rising tide,right?
People lies including your teammembers, especially in this
environment, there's so manythings that are happening in the
world, whether you like it ornot, or supportive of it or not
still, there's a lot of unrestand a lot of anxiety that people
have.
And I think there's anopportunity to be able to then
(22:33):
take that and really use thatenergy to be able to fuel your
success, whatever that successcould be.
Allison (22:40):
You're really speaking to something that people can
control because if the thingholding you back from getting
more book sales or even gettinga book deal.
If it's a lot of people think,oh, it's my platform.
What if it's not your platform?
Maybe it's your energy or yourlack of focus.
Maybe you're too foggy or youfeel like you're always one step
(23:01):
from burnout, so you haven'teven had the energy to spend an
hour or even five minutesfocusing on what do you really
want?
What's the end result, the endgoal of your efforts?
Then it's nearly impossible toset up what the milestones are
to get there, whether it's growyour audience or speak on stage
(23:26):
or contribute to media, but whatyou've done with first
contributing to your local TVstation, and now you have this
amazing show, ask Dr.
Nandi, that's syndicated in over90 million homes.
Come on.
And your book, heal Your Gut,save Your Brain, your publisher
(23:51):
is the Mayo clinic, mayo ClinicPress.
Dr. Nandi (23:54):
And my first book was by Simon Schuster.
Yeah.
But you're absolutely right.
You can do a lot of things and Ithink you're right on.
But I do think, does a platformmatter?
Absolutely, but your platformwill be created.
And will respond to you when youhave the right energy and the
right focus.
And you have then taken the timeto really understand what your
(24:15):
purpose is.
In my first book that I talkedabout, I just called it, asked
Dr.
Nandi five steps to living ajoyful life and what I talk
about there is do a simpleexercise and people don't even
do something as basic as that.
Take a piece of paper on theleft hand side, you put the
things that you really enjoy.
You feel that this is giving mepurpose.
(24:37):
This is giving me joy on theright hand side, you do the
stuff that you really don't wantto do, but you do it anyway.
When you start doing somethingas simple as that and really
identifying what it is that youare.
Wanting to do and capable ofdoing, listen, we all have to
take out the garbage and we allhave to, go talk to the plumber.
If there's a leak, that's hislife, right?
(24:57):
Get it?
Yes.
But beyond that, we spend a lotof time, wasted time on doing
things that are aimless.
So when you start to identifywhat it is you want to do, and
then as you pointed out so well,is that then put the energy
towards that, guess what?
Your platform will increasebecause no matter.
Even if people don't agree withyou, right?
There are many people I'm sureyou don't agree with and I don't
(25:19):
agree with, but you can tell thepassion and you can understand
their sense of purpose thatthat's coming through.
And whether you like it or not,that will attract you to them.
So, that's how you develop aplatform.
You develop a platform first byhaving a purpose and
understanding what, not justfollowing a trend because you
can Google or go to, AI and saywhat is the biggest trend?
(25:42):
And try to follow that.
It could work, right?
But I think if you do.
Allison (25:45):
But then you're always a follower.
Dr. Nandi (25:46):
Correct.
But if you go back inside andsay, this is what drives me.
People will see that and they'llfollow.
You have a platform, so when youhave a platform and then you
want to write about a topic,same idea.
What do you want to write about?
Do you just want to write aboutsomething because you think
it'll sell well?
Or A publisher will like it andthat could work.
But what will really work right,will really work to make a
(26:07):
paradigm shifting book that youthink can impact lives will come
from you and if you then giveyourself enough nutritional
input movement and give itcommunity spirituality, then you
what?
What happens is that you thenyour energy rises to such a
level.
That you're just oozing out thestuff that you're talking about.
(26:28):
And then that will be attractiveknowledge to a publisher.
But to readers.
Allison (26:32):
Right.
to the people that you want toserve, showing up with more
presence and purposeful presenceallows you to say no to things.
And oh my gosh, the confidenceand the power that comes from
saying, no, that's not for me,because I know where I'm meant
to be.
Ugh.
So delightful.
(26:53):
I love when I can removesomething from my plate, just
like I'm not going to be doingthat anymore.
It doesn't interest me, and Iknow it's not going to get me to
where I need to go.
Dr. Nandi (27:07):
And also, when I pitched Simon Schuster, I didn't
pitch just a book.
I pitched a movement that Isaid, this is how we live.
This is how my patients live,this is how all of my community
lives.
And.
Yeah, I had a social mediapresence over a million and a
half, but that came with thesame message.
(27:27):
So when you're congruent andthings align, you then can do
the things you want to do.
Which is okay to have success ina way that's meaningful to you.
And which is Simons books orbeing whatever it is.
It is okay.
It doesn't mean that you're lessof a person or more of a person.
It just means that's the conduityou want.
(27:48):
But remember, it all comes backto where this idea is coming
from, what place it's comingfrom.
When it comes from a place wherereally you're being true to
yourself, the energy rises.
You can tell from talking tosomeone for two minutes, whether
they are, they, they really aretrue to themselves or passionate
or just, just trying to sell yousomething.
(28:09):
And the moment you don't believethem.
Then you turn it off and that'swhat happens for your platform,
your social people scroll bybecause they can immediately
tell that this gal or guy isreally just saying this to get
some likes.
But if they feel like you reallyare motivated and are purposeful
with energy, I think you developa platform, develop that
platform.
You can write a book, you can beon television, you can be an
(28:31):
expert.
And then it's also right it'sdedication.
It's really understanding thatsuccess doesn't happen
overnight.
It's a cliche, but lots ofpeople feel like, oh my gosh,
why is that person doing that?
Allison (28:45):
Why do they have a book?
They have a book because theiraudience leaned in and said we
want more.
And so, you wrote it down likeat some point it's because the
book fulfills the audience'sdesire.
Or their
Dr. Nandi (29:03):
You did over a period of time.
You just didn't show up one dayand say, I'm going to do this.
But a lot of people that I speakto they say I know I'm just as
good as that person.
But I said, do you know thatperson's been doing this for a
decade?
You know the Malcolm Gladwells,right?
10,000 hours that it is so true.
The Beatles didn't just show up,right?
The Beatles, for people who areold enough to remember it or
know the Beatles, like theBeatles came and people say, oh,
(29:25):
it's an overnight success.
Overnight success.
Can't believe it.
Check that.
Or so there's countlessexamples.
Of that, you have to put in thetime and dedication.
And that comes with havingoptimal energy.
And that comes with havingpurpose-driven living and giving
yourself the inputs that youneed to be able to accomplish
that.
And that's biology.
That's just not me saying it.
(29:46):
There's proof all over the placethat can happen.
You can do it multiple ways.
To me, I feel really maximizingyour gut health, which is so
important.
It really accentuates all partsof your life and it'll give you
the energy that you need if youconcentrate your gut.
To me, the gut is the center ofit all.
If we can in the future,medicine will be practiced in
(30:09):
such a different way where weare going to identify the gut as
almost the center where theyhave so many tentacles that go
through the entire body.
And we're seeing more and moreevidence, not just in US, but in
Asia and Africa and Europe, allover the place to be able to
show that.
And I think that the nice thing,and you said as well, is
something you can control.
(30:29):
It's not your destiny or boythat must be nice to be born to
those parents or whatever theexcuse is right.
This is in your control.
And in your hand that you canshape the clay that's been given
to you.
Allison (30:43):
Dr.
Nandi, let me ask you twoquestions.
You are such a reader.
What's a book aside from yourown, because we will have that
in the show notes.
What's a book that people shouldbe reading right now?
Dr. Nandi (30:55):
I like the book, indestructable.
I don't don't know if you'veever read it.
I think it's near Yal is theauthor, but Indestructable And
what's nice about it is a littlebit about what we've been
talking about.
This is an individual whoworked, I believe in social
media.
He worked with all of the socialand digital media companies to
really explain to them how toget us hooked, that we're just
(31:17):
scrolling for an hour.
Allison (31:18):
Yeah.
Dr. Nandi (31:19):
He then writes a book, talking about how you then
become in distractible, meaningthat you're not, while you're
playing with your child, tryingto check your email or scrolling
through things.
Yeah.
When you are writing your book.
That you're not watching peopledo this.
(31:39):
Watching the show on the side,watching the watch, just being
absolutely not distractible.
It's a very powerful book.
It's a simple concept, but hebreaks it down to how you do it.
And I thought it was a very easyread.
I love also it's a big plug forAudible or the, equivalent.
Especially if you're in Bigcities, you're com it commutes
(32:00):
all over commuting, right?
Yeah.
Instead of just.
I keep messing with socialmedia.
I've been so scrolling andwatching the person jumping off
something or doing somethingcrazy, read a book.
I get so much.
I have a 45 minute commute.
And I literally get a book readevery week.
So Indestructible is I think agreat book.
I think it's perfect for whatwe're talking about when you are
(32:23):
trying to really hone in on yourenergy and your focus and your
purpose and trying to be able tobe successful.
I think that's a great book.
Allison (32:32):
Thank you.
Now, before we call this podcastcomplete, what's one tip you
want to leave people with?
What's one thing they should dotoday?
Dr. Nandi (32:42):
I think that find you know, from one of the pillars I
talked about, which is purpose,which is community, which is
spirituality, nutrition, ormovement.
Find one activity from each ofthose and promise to do it in
the next week.
And then, remember that eventhough it often seems like it's
a giant mountain in front ofyou, you take a step at a time,
(33:06):
you reach that mountain andyou'd be surprised how easy and
achievable it becomes.
And that's what when I saidwe're going to start a
television show, it was, whodoes that?
People don't do that.
That gets syndicated.
But we started slow, we took onestep at a time, and then
Mountain became reality.
And we've done 261 hours of asyndicated television show and
we're, we're super proud andwe're changing lives, so.
Allison (33:29):
That's amazing.
And it all started because youhad a singular.
Yeah.
You had a real focus.
Thank you so much for being hereand sharing your wisdom and your
message and your knowledge withus.
We really appreciate yourselflessness with sharing
(33:50):
because these creatives wholisten in or who are already
seasoned authors, but they wantto be speakers, or maybe they
want to be on a board seat, orthey want to be doing keynotes,
not just speaking at theconference, but they want to be
the closer.
There's always the next step andyou seem to have achieved those
(34:16):
goals because you've set them.
So, let this be a lesson to youwho's listening right now.
And I know you're on yourcommute because everyone's on
their commute or you're walkingthe dogs or you're folding
laundry.
because it is mindless and sohorrible.
But the laundry does not stop.
But you think about what you canset as your goal.
(34:39):
And on the way there, choose oneof the five pillars and Dr.
Nandi said, choose one andpromise to do something this
week I'm going to one up you andsay, today.
Today, you can stop right now.
If you're in your home, stand upand touch your toes, and that
counts as movement.
You are welcome.
(34:59):
You can reach out for communityand you can send me an email.
I'm your community.
I know you're folding theclothes.
I know you're driving, but youcan think of someone you can
call with your Bluetooth.
You can think of what do Ireally want the end result of my
efforts to be?
What is you, the purpose thatthe book that you want to write
(35:24):
isn't the end.
because the book will come out.
And then what?
So the book is really amilestone on the way to your
purpose.
So, I love that you'rechallenging us to be certain
about what is the end goal?
Because it's never the end.
It's just you achieved this andnow what?
(35:47):
Then what?
It's so good.
Thank you so much and we willhave everything you mentioned in
the show notes and I'm soexcited to find out what
everyone is going to do first.
Are you going to look atspirituality first?
Are you going to look atcommunity?
Are you going to look atnutrition or movement or a
missing one?
Dr. Nandi (36:08):
Community, nutrition movement, and spirituality.
Allison (36:11):
Yes.
But the first one was purpose,correct?
Dr. Nandi (36:14):
Correct.
Purpose drives everything.
Allison (36:16):
Purpose drives everything.
You heard it here first.
Even if people don't agree with you, right?
(00:02):
There are many people I'm sureyou don't agree with and I don't
agree with, but you can tell thepassion and you can understand
their sense of purpose thatthat's coming through.
And whether you like it or not,that will attract you to them.
Allison (00:41):
Welcome back to the Author's Edge.
And listen, I hear from youevery week that you are
inspired, but you're stillcaught up of I don't know how
I'm going to do this, or I hearthis a lot.
I'm dealing with a healthsituation.
I plan to take this effort backup in the summer or maybe in the
fall when I'm feeling better.
This happens all the time.
(01:03):
People have health setbacks.
They have mindset setbacks.
And today, we're going to diveinto them really quickly because
Dr.
Partha Nandi is here with uswho's first of all, he's been on
Oprah, he's a keynote speaker,he's a gastroenterologist, and
(01:25):
he got his start being this bigtime.
Bestselling author and superstarspeaker because he had a medical
practice and he startedcontributing to his local media.
Baby steps.
people.
before I start talking way toomuch, Dr.
(01:46):
Andy, thank you so much forbeing with us.
Dr. Nandi (01:48):
Awesome.
Thank you for having me.
You're amazing.
Just, I spent a few minutes withyou and you're just a breath of
fresh air, so thanks for havingme on.
Allison (01:54):
Gosh, thanks.
I'm going to flirt now.
It's 90,000 degrees here inBoston today, so I'm getting
flushed because I have theGerman red skin and we can't
help it.
Okay.
So, listen I'm sure you seetelltale signs all the time when
you see people making decisionswhen they are pursuing
(02:19):
something, but their health andtheir energy gets in the way,
especially energy.
So, what's that mistake that yousee that SAPs energy?
Dr. Nandi (02:30):
Yeah, that's an important question, right?
Because especially, I'm a doc,right?
And people who are physiciansand doctors are, we're famous
for this.
And what happens is that I thinkI'll let you know my story that
when energy comes in, energy isfinite, you only have a certain
amount of it.
To me, staying on point, stayingwithin what you're doing at the
(02:51):
time that you're doing it.
Being mindful is absolutely thekey because what happens is that
it's the classic, if you've everbeen in a party, Allison, where
you're talking to someone andthey seem riveted, but every so
often they're looking beyond youto find the next coolest person
that they can talk to.
They're in your conversation,but they're going the next step.
(03:14):
So what I mean by that is, soyou have to first define for
yourself if you're aprofessional, talking about
these rockstar people.
We talked before we got on air.
There's so many people that aremassively talented and they want
to spread that knowledge, thattalent elsewhere.
But they get stymied.
They get bogged down.
And I think part of it is reallybeing present at the time that
(03:35):
you're doing whatever you'redoing at the very moment you're
thinking about it.
So, for example, if you'rewriting a book, then you
basically write the book.
You're not answering texts,you're not walking over to the
fridge to talk to your childrenyou have to be mindful and be
focused and be goal oriented Sowhen you go back, you say, okay,
(03:55):
first of all what is it that Iwant to accomplish?
I tell, when I have my keynotes,even when I'm talking to my
family or talking to mypatients, it's very similar.
I ask them, what is it that youwant to accomplish?
What is it that to me, is yourpurpose.
Once you have your purposedefined.
If you want to, for example, dowhat I'm doing, which is do a
television show write a book,write bestselling books and
(04:19):
being able to be on social anddigital media.
Why are you doing it?
I know for me it started veryearly when I was a child, I
nearly died of rheumatic heartdisease.
It's a disease not a lot ofpeople know about.
I had heart failure.
And as a child, my parents wentfrom doctor to doctor trying to
find a solution until we found adoctor, Dr.
Chandra Shaker.
This is in India.
(04:39):
I was born in India and came tothe United States at age nine.
So Dr.
Chandra Shaker saved my life.
That then propelled me to say, Iwant to do what this guy is
doing.
So I became a physician.
And then after I became aphysician, my biggest hero, my
dad suffered a devastatingstroke.
And then I became, a patientadvocate.
So my dad, who was just, largerthan life to me, he was a
(05:01):
brilliant person and hebasically became, dependent on
myself and my family.
So what I learned at that timewas people need to understand
how to be able to not onlynavigate the healthcare system,
but try to figure out ways inwhich they don't suffer the same
fate as my dad.
So to me, we coined that phrasebeing a health hero, which is
(05:24):
being your own health advocate,really making your health and
wellness your focus.
And when we took on that goal,when I say we, it was myself, my
team, my wife is my partner inlife and we said we're going to
reach people and help themunderstand how to make health
and wellness a part of theirlife.
We developed a five pillarmethodology, which is
(05:45):
purpose-driven living, havingnutrition, having movement,
having spirituality andcommunity.
Those five pillars driveeverything we do and that's the
method that we use.
But it goes back to saying, Iwant people to really have an
idea of what to do to be able tolive their best life.
That's my motivation.
(06:06):
That's when I get up in themorning, I jump out of bed
because why?
I know what I want toaccomplish.
You have to find that.
It's the first step, right?
In order to not zap your energy.
It's the first step havingpurpose-driven living.
And I think that if you have apurpose in mind, then you know,
other things just fall by thewayside.
You don't sit there and pick upthis thing and say, oh, let me
(06:27):
look at, something for an hourand just mindlessly, because you
want to be able to accomplishwhatever goal you're having.
So have purpose-driven living.
But then to me, energy andperforming at the highest level.
It's not just like pithy sayingsor, rah, you can do it.
It's about biology.
It's really about optimizingyour biology.
(06:49):
What I mean by that is usingyour five pillars that I talked
about, purpose defines it, ithelps your body really achieve
incredible things.
Why?
Because when you are notaimlessly wandering around
trying to find.
What you're doing, and you haveno idea, the cortisol level in
your body decreases, right?
So, when cortisol decreases,inflammation decreases.
(07:11):
When inflammation decreases,your focus in your mind
increases, your cardiovascularoutputs better.
You have less pain, you haveless fatigue, you have all the
things just from beingpurpose-driven and not being
aimless.
Multiple studies have shown justhaving purpose.
The second thing to me is, youknow what?
Having the right nutrition, andthat of course means the food
(07:33):
that you're eating to make sureyou're giving your body the
right fuel to be able to thenperform these things at your
best people who are leaders thatwant to be able to do more than
just show up.
They want to be able to expresstheir ideas to be able to
transform people's lives.
You need to have the right fuelto keep you going.
(07:53):
And when I say nutrition, I ofcourse mean getting the right
diet, getting enough hydration,but I also mean the input that
you get, right?
Like the books that you read,the people that you listen to,
the podcast, right?
Like you're listening to nowpodcasts, YouTube videos that
you're looking at that you getthe right nutrition to fuel you.
It's super important.
(08:15):
I think also movement.
Movement is key.
So, there are a lot of people inmy profession who just the only
thing they know is that you justoutwork people.
It's the classic American dream,right?
You just comment.
Allison (08:29):
Oh my gosh, everyone feels like that.
I'm not doing enough.
I see this person doing likethey're speaking at this
conference.
Maybe I should speak at thatconference.
Oh my gosh, stick to your butlike eyes on your own paper,
stick to your knitting.
The audience, the people theyserve are not the people you
(08:49):
serve.
And also your message is totallydifferent.
And just because you're in thesame peer group doesn't mean
you're the same.
And what you're saying though,about how being focused and
mindful about what you put intoyour body, your nogging, and the
body that we all live in reallyfeeds is the fuel for your
(09:14):
focus.
Dr. Nandi (09:16):
Correct.
You wouldn't put in diesel intoyour gasoline engine and then
expect it to just purr the wholeway through.
It's going to sputter and die.
We often put a lot of dieselinto our gasoline engines.
Allison (09:27):
I mean, thanksgiving Day itself is evidence of that.
Does anyone do anything afterThanksgiving, Turkey.
They wear looser clothes so thatthey can stuff themselves, like
the Turkey and then plan to takea nap.
That's a big day, bigThanksgiving day.
Dr. Nandi (09:45):
What you're doing is, if you look at the biology,
you're changing your microbiomewith the wrong input.
And what the microbiome is forthose of you may not know and
most of you do know, but it's atrillion member army that's in
your intestine.
And the microbiome we nowunderstand controls so much of
what you do.
And so much of your health.
And so when you talked about,Thanksgiving day, but for most
(10:07):
people, you know the amount ofstress that they have talking
about just what you did, whichis the FOMO fear that they're
not good enough, that somebodyelse is better, that they need
to be doing 12 differentpodcasts or 16 keynotes or
whatever it is.
But you stick to what you'redoing, but give yourself the
(10:27):
right tools, right?
So I said nutrition movement isreally important.
You have to be able to knowevery single day your body
changes.
With movement, your body'sentire biology changes with
movement, not only do you getmore strength, we understand
that and more stamina.
It changes your gut health, itchanges your brain health.
We now know multiple studiesthat show that the amount of
(10:50):
neurotransmitters which are thechemicals that change your
behavior.
For example, serotonin.
Serotonin is the feel-goodhormone that keeps you
motivated.
When you have more movement, Idon't mean, lifting 500 pounds
or running marathons.
A simple movement increases thatserotonin.
So I think if you do that, thelast two are just having
community, having like-mindedpeople, right?
(11:13):
Not Yes.
Men.
Yes.
like-minded people.
Like yourself saying, Hey, youknow what?
Because you have a community.
You're developing this communityand your community looks to you
to give them advice, give thatsupport is not only invigorating
for ideas, it's invigorating foryour body and biology, just like
purpose.
Community-based living decreasesthe amount of cortisol,
(11:36):
decreases all of the what wecall catecholamines things that
just get your body revved up, itdecreases, it gets you in a
sense of equilibrium.
If you have community in yourlife, there are multiple studies
that show that even just havingcommunity alone will be enough
to reduce multiple diseases,increase focus.
And the last one to me is veryimportant to spirituality.
(11:58):
When I tell people aboutspirituality, they often jump
right into religion, which isfine.
I'm religious.
If you are, that's great.
If you're not though,spirituality could just mean
taking a walk in the garden.
Could mean what I do, meditationevery day.
These are powerful tools.
Again, to do what?
To be able to preserve yourenergy, your vitality, so you
can preserve your version.
(12:20):
And I'll call it the AmericanDream because we're in America.
But I think it's a worldwidephenomena.
The American dream used to bethis out, hustle, outwork, don't
sleep, drink as many cups ofcoffee, do whatever you need to
do.
The new American dream to me isto really have a focus on
vitality where rest is asimportant as going nuts because
(12:42):
then it changes your biology,changes your focus so you can
accomplish the things that youwant to do.
Allison (12:47):
When you talk about protecting your health, what I
hear you saying is that focusingon your health, protecting your
health is actually how we canprotect our productivity.
That's right.
Because I know that you helpleaders and corporations and
associations really protect theculture of their teams by
(13:11):
protecting the individual andgiving them a welcome to focus
on their health.
No one thinks that the persontoiling 16 hours a day is the
one who's going to get thepromotion because they make it
look sweaty and hard and justlike a terrible task because it
(13:33):
is for them.
And also they never become moreproductive somehow.
Yeah.
You know, they make it look hardbecause they never rest.
They don't eat a grape, they'reeating out of their desk, just,
whatever crackers are left over.
Dr. Nandi (13:51):
But that's what we've been trained to do.
This is now 2025.
But generations have told peoplethat you have to do that.
And that's the antiquated idea.
We now know, for example, Ford ahundred years ago changed the
work week and actually becamemore productive.
And you can do that.
It's not about just toilinguntil you're done, like you said
(14:12):
it's looking at your biology andsaying, how can I be more
productive in a shorter periodof time?
But also understanding what itis you want to do so that when
you are productive, you aredoing the activities that really
forward your ideas.
They actually help you to beable to get that dream of yours
to be successful.
(14:33):
Because often if we don't havepurposeful thinking,
purpose-driven, living alongwith the caveats of having the
right inputs, you then are doingwork and you're doing productive
stuff, but it's not productivetowards what you want and what
you feel is important.
And when I talk to companies,each of these people that I'm
talking to are individuals, butcollectively, the entire company
(14:56):
goes around me, I don't have totell you how much turnover there
is.
I'm a board member on a companythat, that is their revenues
well over$200 million.
And we do these meetings,Allison, and they have these
board decks, meaning, you know,the notes.
Right?
On the appendix was employeewellness, satisfaction and
(15:17):
turnover.
And I said to them, there iszero chance of us as a company
to be able to succeed if we'renot looking at those parameters
of employers and employeehealth, our team members being
healthy.
And again, it's not about justmotivating people, it's about
looking at their biology to seewhat can we do to really be able
(15:39):
to optimize your activity.
Whether you're a physician thatwants to, then branch out and
write a book or do television,or if it's, you are somebody who
is working on the line.
And you want to be able to bemore active in your community to
be able to volunteer.
We all have different measuresof success, right?
I think whether each of thoseactivities are different than
(16:02):
your normal job or your normalact, your day.
And I think Sure.
When you make yourself moreproductive in using these.
These tools and skills, youbecome more fulfilled and you
resurrect your life.
And one of my friends who speaksand he talks about the buried
life, he talks about how yourlife can be buried and your
dreams can really be crushed.
(16:22):
I think if you use thismethodology of vitality, you can
then revitalize those activitiesthat are really important to
life and on the workplace.
Your team members will see youjust thrive on a personal level,
you'll feel incrediblysatisfied.
And then guess what?
Those people are not burned out.
They're not turning over.
You're not trying to train aperson every six months and your
(16:45):
company's going down the dumpsbecause you can't achieve the
kind of success you're achieving
Allison (16:51):
There is something so refreshing to hear you talk
about your experience on thisboard.
You don't know this about me,but I led media relations at
Pepsi and I led PR at Unilever,and employer branding at SaaS
Analytics, which was number oneon the Great Place to Work list,
(17:13):
two years running, which is aneffort I led.
And when the company went fromnumber 20 to number one.
On the Fortune best companies towork for list, but it's led by a
great place to work.
So the great place to work isthe company that does all the
analytics.
When we went from number 20 tonumber one, they had to double
(17:38):
the amount of recruiters in HRbecause the amount of
applications for each jobdoubled overnight like this.
And turnover went from, it wasalready very high because SAS
was so highly ranked.
It went from 97.9% to 99%.
(18:02):
So only 1% turnover.
So when I was at sas.
What we learned is that whenpeople understood not only their
job responsibility, but theimpact, the ripple effect it had
for the company, they had morepride in ownership, and they
(18:26):
achieved their goals faster.
When we say productivity, wedidn't mean they were able to
produce more things, but thegoal and the objective were met
with less fewer obstacles.
Less friction, because everyoneunderstood what their role was
(18:50):
and how it led to the purpose.
And when you were speaking aboutproductivity, what occurred to
me is that most people don'tactually understand what the end
goal is of their purpose.
They're thinking about themilestone that gets them there.
But your goal was so clearbecause you understood what
(19:11):
success looked like.
Dr. Nandi (19:12):
That's exactly right.
Allison (19:13):
Which is different.
Dr. Nandi (19:15):
For everybody, it is different for everybody.
And I love the fact that youbrought up these incredibly
giant companies that peoplewould not necessarily attribute
to having, employee health andemployee wellness as categories
that are important.
But you're absolutely right.
I think if we can do that.
Do you have a Wegmans where youare in your part of the world
(19:37):
like when store
Allison (19:39):
Yes.
Dr. Nandi (19:39):
It's an incredible story how when you pay attention
to the input nutritional inputsof the employees, what happens
to the productivity and whathappens to making those
employees really loyal to yourcompany, but also make their
lives enjoyable?
There are multiple examples ofhow when companies do this and
(20:00):
they do it for individuals.
Then the entire company not onlythrives, but the individual
thrives.
And then as a doctor, what Ilove is, here's the side effect.
They have less heart attacks,they have less autoimmune
disease.
They're not going to the doctorwith bloating, et cetera,
because as in my practice, topfive every single time of
(20:22):
reasons why people come and talkto me and they say, I was in the
office today and the lady camein with, bloating, discomfort,
left sided pain, which is almostintractable.
And I said, let's just talkabout, what it could be.
But tell me what's going on andwhen is it worse?
Almost always top five reasonswork and what happens at the
workplace, right?
(20:43):
My boss, my coworkers this womandid her administration.
She's a teacher and love thestudents, but the administration
just kills me.
So my point is that when weexpand to what happens in
people's lives, we spend moretime at work, traditionally,
most people do, than any otherplace.
And if we can revitalize, andthis is what I do in my talks,
(21:04):
that how can we revitalize theworkplace so that you can use
true biology, trueevidence-based biology to say if
we do these simple changes,right?
Then you can uplift the healthof the individual.
By the way, the side effect forthe company is that they do
really well because the fact isif they have happy employees
(21:26):
that are not burnt out, that arenot having a lot of turnover,
all you have to do is if youlook at I don't go to many fast
food restaurants, but if youever go to a Chick-fil-A, it's
always full.
It's not just the food.
The people there, behave in acertain way and there are
multiple places where people,when they're given the right
direction, Delta Airlines isone.
(21:48):
And they're not perfect.
But if you go there, the waythey treat their people with
multiple, avenues that theydirect them, I think people do
well.
To me, as a physician, I like itbecause their health, is also
uplifted.
And then it also increasesproductivity.
To me, it's not just about thecompany doing well, like you
talked about with Pepsi or anyof these giant companies.
(22:09):
Yeah.
It's also about uplifting theindividual.
Like I said, a rising tide,right?
People lies including your teammembers, especially in this
environment, there's so manythings that are happening in the
world, whether you like it ornot, or supportive of it or not
still, there's a lot of unrestand a lot of anxiety that people
have.
And I think there's anopportunity to be able to then
(22:33):
take that and really use thatenergy to be able to fuel your
success, whatever that successcould be.
Allison (22:40):
You're really speaking to something that people can
control because if the thingholding you back from getting
more book sales or even gettinga book deal.
If it's a lot of people think,oh, it's my platform.
What if it's not your platform?
Maybe it's your energy or yourlack of focus.
Maybe you're too foggy or youfeel like you're always one step
(23:01):
from burnout, so you haven'teven had the energy to spend an
hour or even five minutesfocusing on what do you really
want?
What's the end result, the endgoal of your efforts?
Then it's nearly impossible toset up what the milestones are
to get there, whether it's growyour audience or speak on stage
(23:26):
or contribute to media, but whatyou've done with first
contributing to your local TVstation, and now you have this
amazing show, ask Dr.
Nandi, that's syndicated in over90 million homes.
Come on.
And your book, heal Your Gut,save Your Brain, your publisher
(23:51):
is the Mayo clinic, mayo ClinicPress.
Dr. Nandi (23:54):
And my first book was by Simon Schuster.
Yeah.
But you're absolutely right.
You can do a lot of things and Ithink you're right on.
But I do think, does a platformmatter?
Absolutely, but your platformwill be created.
And will respond to you when youhave the right energy and the
right focus.
And you have then taken the timeto really understand what your
(24:15):
purpose is.
In my first book that I talkedabout, I just called it, asked
Dr.
Nandi five steps to living ajoyful life and what I talk
about there is do a simpleexercise and people don't even
do something as basic as that.
Take a piece of paper on theleft hand side, you put the
things that you really enjoy.
You feel that this is giving mepurpose.
(24:37):
This is giving me joy on theright hand side, you do the
stuff that you really don't wantto do, but you do it anyway.
When you start doing somethingas simple as that and really
identifying what it is that youare.
Wanting to do and capable ofdoing, listen, we all have to
take out the garbage and we allhave to, go talk to the plumber.
If there's a leak, that's hislife, right?
(24:57):
Get it?
Yes.
But beyond that, we spend a lotof time, wasted time on doing
things that are aimless.
So when you start to identifywhat it is you want to do, and
then as you pointed out so well,is that then put the energy
towards that, guess what?
Your platform will increasebecause no matter.
Even if people don't agree withyou, right?
There are many people I'm sureyou don't agree with and I don't
(25:19):
agree with, but you can tell thepassion and you can understand
their sense of purpose thatthat's coming through.
And whether you like it or not,that will attract you to them.
So, that's how you develop aplatform.
You develop a platform first byhaving a purpose and
understanding what, not justfollowing a trend because you
can Google or go to, AI and saywhat is the biggest trend?
(25:42):
And try to follow that.
It could work, right?
But I think if you do.
Allison (25:45):
But then you're always a follower.
Dr. Nandi (25:46):
Correct.
But if you go back inside andsay, this is what drives me.
People will see that and they'llfollow.
You have a platform, so when youhave a platform and then you
want to write about a topic,same idea.
What do you want to write about?
Do you just want to write aboutsomething because you think
it'll sell well?
Or A publisher will like it andthat could work.
But what will really work right,will really work to make a
(26:07):
paradigm shifting book that youthink can impact lives will come
from you and if you then giveyourself enough nutritional
input movement and give itcommunity spirituality, then you
what?
What happens is that you thenyour energy rises to such a
level.
That you're just oozing out thestuff that you're talking about.
(26:28):
And then that will be attractiveknowledge to a publisher.
But to readers.
Allison (26:32):
Right.
to the people that you want toserve, showing up with more
presence and purposeful presenceallows you to say no to things.
And oh my gosh, the confidenceand the power that comes from
saying, no, that's not for me,because I know where I'm meant
to be.
Ugh.
So delightful.
(26:53):
I love when I can removesomething from my plate, just
like I'm not going to be doingthat anymore.
It doesn't interest me, and Iknow it's not going to get me to
where I need to go.
Dr. Nandi (27:07):
And also, when I pitched Simon Schuster, I didn't
pitch just a book.
I pitched a movement that Isaid, this is how we live.
This is how my patients live,this is how all of my community
lives.
And.
Yeah, I had a social mediapresence over a million and a
half, but that came with thesame message.
(27:27):
So when you're congruent andthings align, you then can do
the things you want to do.
Which is okay to have success ina way that's meaningful to you.
And which is Simons books orbeing whatever it is.
It is okay.
It doesn't mean that you're lessof a person or more of a person.
It just means that's the conduityou want.
(27:48):
But remember, it all comes backto where this idea is coming
from, what place it's comingfrom.
When it comes from a place wherereally you're being true to
yourself, the energy rises.
You can tell from talking tosomeone for two minutes, whether
they are, they, they really aretrue to themselves or passionate
or just, just trying to sell yousomething.
(28:09):
And the moment you don't believethem.
Then you turn it off and that'swhat happens for your platform,
your social people scroll bybecause they can immediately
tell that this gal or guy isreally just saying this to get
some likes.
But if they feel like you reallyare motivated and are purposeful
with energy, I think you developa platform, develop that
platform.
You can write a book, you can beon television, you can be an
(28:31):
expert.
And then it's also right it'sdedication.
It's really understanding thatsuccess doesn't happen
overnight.
It's a cliche, but lots ofpeople feel like, oh my gosh,
why is that person doing that?
Allison (28:45):
Why do they have a book?
They have a book because theiraudience leaned in and said we
want more.
And so, you wrote it down likeat some point it's because the
book fulfills the audience'sdesire.
Or their
Dr. Nandi (29:03):
You did over a period of time.
You just didn't show up one dayand say, I'm going to do this.
But a lot of people that I speakto they say I know I'm just as
good as that person.
But I said, do you know thatperson's been doing this for a
decade?
You know the Malcolm Gladwells,right?
10,000 hours that it is so true.
The Beatles didn't just show up,right?
The Beatles, for people who areold enough to remember it or
know the Beatles, like theBeatles came and people say, oh,
(29:25):
it's an overnight success.
Overnight success.
Can't believe it.
Check that.
Or so there's countlessexamples.
Of that, you have to put in thetime and dedication.
And that comes with havingoptimal energy.
And that comes with havingpurpose-driven living and giving
yourself the inputs that youneed to be able to accomplish
that.
And that's biology.
That's just not me saying it.
(29:46):
There's proof all over the placethat can happen.
You can do it multiple ways.
To me, I feel really maximizingyour gut health, which is so
important.
It really accentuates all partsof your life and it'll give you
the energy that you need if youconcentrate your gut.
To me, the gut is the center ofit all.
If we can in the future,medicine will be practiced in
(30:09):
such a different way where weare going to identify the gut as
almost the center where theyhave so many tentacles that go
through the entire body.
And we're seeing more and moreevidence, not just in US, but in
Asia and Africa and Europe, allover the place to be able to
show that.
And I think that the nice thing,and you said as well, is
something you can control.
(30:29):
It's not your destiny or boythat must be nice to be born to
those parents or whatever theexcuse is right.
This is in your control.
And in your hand that you canshape the clay that's been given
to you.
Allison (30:43):
Dr.
Nandi, let me ask you twoquestions.
You are such a reader.
What's a book aside from yourown, because we will have that
in the show notes.
What's a book that people shouldbe reading right now?
Dr. Nandi (30:55):
I like the book, indestructable.
I don't don't know if you'veever read it.
I think it's near Yal is theauthor, but Indestructable And
what's nice about it is a littlebit about what we've been
talking about.
This is an individual whoworked, I believe in social
media.
He worked with all of the socialand digital media companies to
really explain to them how toget us hooked, that we're just
(31:17):
scrolling for an hour.
Allison (31:18):
Yeah.
Dr. Nandi (31:19):
He then writes a book, talking about how you then
become in distractible, meaningthat you're not, while you're
playing with your child, tryingto check your email or scrolling
through things.
Yeah.
When you are writing your book.
That you're not watching peopledo this.
(31:39):
Watching the show on the side,watching the watch, just being
absolutely not distractible.
It's a very powerful book.
It's a simple concept, but hebreaks it down to how you do it.
And I thought it was a very easyread.
I love also it's a big plug forAudible or the, equivalent.
Especially if you're in Bigcities, you're com it commutes
(32:00):
all over commuting, right?
Yeah.
Instead of just.
I keep messing with socialmedia.
I've been so scrolling andwatching the person jumping off
something or doing somethingcrazy, read a book.
I get so much.
I have a 45 minute commute.
And I literally get a book readevery week.
So Indestructible is I think agreat book.
I think it's perfect for whatwe're talking about when you are
(32:23):
trying to really hone in on yourenergy and your focus and your
purpose and trying to be able tobe successful.
I think that's a great book.
Allison (32:32):
Thank you.
Now, before we call this podcastcomplete, what's one tip you
want to leave people with?
What's one thing they should dotoday?
Dr. Nandi (32:42):
I think that find you know, from one of the pillars I
talked about, which is purpose,which is community, which is
spirituality, nutrition, ormovement.
Find one activity from each ofthose and promise to do it in
the next week.
And then, remember that eventhough it often seems like it's
a giant mountain in front ofyou, you take a step at a time,
(33:06):
you reach that mountain andyou'd be surprised how easy and
achievable it becomes.
And that's what when I saidwe're going to start a
television show, it was, whodoes that?
People don't do that.
That gets syndicated.
But we started slow, we took onestep at a time, and then
Mountain became reality.
And we've done 261 hours of asyndicated television show and
we're, we're super proud andwe're changing lives, so.
Allison (33:29):
That's amazing.
And it all started because youhad a singular.
Yeah.
You had a real focus.
Thank you so much for being hereand sharing your wisdom and your
message and your knowledge withus.
We really appreciate yourselflessness with sharing
(33:50):
because these creatives wholisten in or who are already
seasoned authors, but they wantto be speakers, or maybe they
want to be on a board seat, orthey want to be doing keynotes,
not just speaking at theconference, but they want to be
the closer.
There's always the next step andyou seem to have achieved those
(34:16):
goals because you've set them.
So, let this be a lesson to youwho's listening right now.
And I know you're on yourcommute because everyone's on
their commute or you're walkingthe dogs or you're folding
laundry.
because it is mindless and sohorrible.
But the laundry does not stop.
But you think about what you canset as your goal.
(34:39):
And on the way there, choose oneof the five pillars and Dr.
Nandi said, choose one andpromise to do something this
week I'm going to one up you andsay, today.
Today, you can stop right now.
If you're in your home, stand upand touch your toes, and that
counts as movement.
You are welcome.
(34:59):
You can reach out for communityand you can send me an email.
I'm your community.
I know you're folding theclothes.
I know you're driving, but youcan think of someone you can
call with your Bluetooth.
You can think of what do Ireally want the end result of my
efforts to be?
What is you, the purpose thatthe book that you want to write
(35:24):
isn't the end.
because the book will come out.
And then what?
So the book is really amilestone on the way to your
purpose.
So, I love that you'rechallenging us to be certain
about what is the end goal?
Because it's never the end.
It's just you achieved this andnow what?
(35:47):
Then what?
It's so good.
Thank you so much and we willhave everything you mentioned in
the show notes and I'm soexcited to find out what
everyone is going to do first.
Are you going to look atspirituality first?
Are you going to look atcommunity?
Are you going to look atnutrition or movement or a
missing one?
Dr. Nandi (36:08):
Community, nutrition movement, and spirituality.
Allison (36:11):
Yes.
But the first one was purpose,correct?
Dr. Nandi (36:14):
Correct.
Purpose drives everything.
Allison (36:16):
Purpose drives everything.
You heard it here first.
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