April 15, 2025 • 52 mins
Today’s conversation with Dr. Bill Rawls and Braden Rawls is about understanding health at a cellular level.
Dr. Bill Rawls is a licensed physician with over 30 years of experience in medicine. After facing a personal health crisis in his early forties, he turned to herbal and alternative medicine, restoring his health and becoming a leading voice in holistic wellness. He is the bestselling author of "The Cellular Wellness Solution," and serves as the Medical Director and Co-Founder of Vital Plan, a holistic health company and Certified B Corporation.
Braden Rawls is the CEO and other Co-Founder of Vital Plan, a company she established with her father, Dr. Bill Rawls, in 2008. Under her leadership, Vital Plan has developed meticulously crafted supplement blends using the highest quality ingredients, aiming to empower individuals to take control of their health.
The reason I reached out to them is that the information in Dr. Rawl’s book “The Cellular Wellness Solution” had me buzzing from all that I learned because it made so much sense and provided a missing puzzle piece in my healing journey.
I’ve been battling a couple autoimmune diseases for about fifteen years, and in that time, I’ve seen at least a dozen different endocrinologists, and each and every one of them told me that healing my own autoimmune condition was impossible. All solutions they offered ultimately led to surgically remove my thyroid or killing it through radioactive iodine. A major vital organ.
And, I was unwilling to accept this route as a real solution (for me), and so I spent years reading books to learn as much as I could about thyroid health.
Fast forward to today, and without medication, all of my thyroid levels are back in the normal range - because of what I’ve learned about healing through diet, lifestyle and herbal supplements.
This is not medical advice. The information and opinions presented in this podcast are for generational informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always seek the advice of your own physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Reliance on any information provided in this podcast is solely at your own risk.
- www.vitalplan.com
- www.rawlsmd.com
- Instagram: @rawlsmd
- Instagram: @vitalplan
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So what healing is?
The ability of cells to recoverfrom stress.
That's what healing is.
A lot of people just they don'tunderstand that simple thing.
So if you have a symptom, yourcells are talking to you.
It doesn't matter where thatsymptom is.
So sometimes a symptom isspecific, like if you blocked an
(00:20):
artery in your heart, you'regoing to get chest pain.
Those cells are going to betalking to you.
An artery in your heart, you'regoing to get chest pain.
Those cells are going to betalking to you.
But if you feel fatigued and youjust are feeling run down, it
means all the cells in your bodyare stressed and you really
should be paying attention.
Am I getting enough sleep?
Am I eating a decent diet?
Am I being exposed to toxicsubstances?
Is there mold growing in mybathroom?
(00:41):
Or have I picked up some newmicrobe that's affecting my
cells, this wreaking havocinside my bathroom?
Or have I picked up some newmicrobe that's affecting my
cells, this wreaking havocinside my body?
What's going on?
And people don't ask thosereally simple questions.
But those questions listeningto your body, listening to what
your cells are telling you aremore valuable than any lab you
can get you can get Welcome tohow I Built my Small Business.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm Anne McGinty, your host, and today's
conversation with Dr Bill Rawlsand Brayden Rawls is about
understanding health at acellular level.
Dr Bill Rawls is a licensedphysician with over 30 years of
experience in medicine.
After facing a personal healthcrisis in his early 40s, he
turned to herbal and alternativemedicine, restoring his health
(01:36):
and becoming a leading voice inholistic wellness.
He is the best-selling authorof the Cellular Wellness
Solution and serves as themedical director and co-founder
of VitalPlan, a holistic healthcompany and certified B
Corporation.
Brayden Rawls is the CEO andother co-founder of VitalPlan, a
(01:57):
company she established withher father, dr Bill Rawls, in
2008.
Under her leadership, vitalpPlan has developed meticulously
crafted supplement blends usingthe highest quality ingredients,
aiming to empower individualsto take control of their health.
The reason I reached out tothem is that the information in
(02:17):
Dr Rawls' book, the CellularWellness Solution, had me
buzzing from all that I learned,because it made so much sense
and provided a missing puzzlepiece in my healing journey.
I've been battling a coupleautoimmune diseases for about 15
years and in that time I'veseen at least a dozen different
(02:38):
endocrinologists, and each andevery one of them told me that
healing my own autoimmunecondition was impossible.
All solutions they offeredultimately led to surgically
removing my thyroid or killingit a major vital organ and I was
unwilling to accept this routeas a real solution for me, and
(03:01):
so I spent years reading booksto learn as much as I could
about thyroid health.
Fast forward to today, and,without medication, all of my
thyroid levels are back in thenormal range because of what
I've learned about healingthrough diet, lifestyle and
herbal supplements.
This is not medical advice.
The information and opinionspresented in this podcast are
(03:25):
for general information purposesonly and do not constitute
medical advice.
Always seek the advice of yourown physician or other qualified
healthcare provider with anyquestions you may have regarding
a medical condition.
Reliance on any informationprovided in this podcast is
solely at your risk.
Let's get started.
Information provided in thispodcast is solely at your risk.
(03:47):
Let's get started.
Dr Rawls Brayden, it is such apleasure to have you on the show
.
Thanks for coming on today.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Thank you Pleasure.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So, Dr Rawls, it's my understanding that you were an
obstetrician for many years andthen you pivoted into cellular
health.
Can you tell us the backgroundon why that transition happened?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, it wasn't planned, it was by accident as
much as anything.
You know I went into obstetricsand gynecology because it's
dealing with healthy people,wellness, bringing life into the
world.
But 30 years ago when I startedout with that, I was doing call
in the hospital 24 hour, callfor labor and delivery and the
(04:34):
emergency room every second tothird day and I was one of those
people that if somebody was inlabor or they were in the
hospital with a problem, Ididn't sleep.
So I went like 20 years sleepdeprived and just was pushing
that stress button all aroundthat and my body started falling
apart in my late 40s and thatcaused me to really take a
(04:57):
serious look at where I wasgoing personally and my health
in general.
I was in pretty bad shape bythe time I was 50.
And I changed my health habits.
But more than that, I startedusing herbal therapy pretty
intensely with the idea that Iwas carrying the microbes
associated with Lyme disease andjust had extraordinary results,
(05:21):
absolutely extraordinary.
So I've been the past 20 yearsreally studying that what
happened, why the herbs work,what was going on in my life,
and building out differentmodels for how we should be
addressing chronic illness thanwhat I learned in medical school
and it's really been veryfulfilling.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Can we go back a little bit more?
When you say that your body wasfalling apart, what do you mean
and why did you decide to startexploring herbs?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, that again was by accident too.
I started developing symptomsin every part of my body.
You know I'd been sleepdeprived.
But even when I gave upobstetrics call and things
didn't get better, I really lostthe ability to sleep normally
brain fog, neurological symptoms.
I was worried that I might bedeveloping MS.
(06:11):
But at the same time I hadirregular heartbeats.
My heart was jumping beatsevery second to third beat.
I had chronic chest pain, mygut was a wreck, my joints were
falling apart.
I mean pretty much my wholebody was in distress.
But at the same time, going toconventional physicians getting
labs, it's like well, you know,we did a cardiac cath, your
(06:34):
vessels are clear.
Here's a drug to help withthose irregular beats Great, and
well, you don't have quiteenough, you're not progressed
enough to be called NMS.
Here's some more drugs you cantake to help the symptoms Great,
and nothing to really put me ona trajectory to take me back to
wellness.
So it was several years ofasking that question what, why?
(06:56):
What's going on?
Why am I not getting better?
And coming back to thepossibility of Lyme disease?
Because you know I'd had a lotof tick bites in my life but I
never remembered getting sick tothe possibility of Lyme disease
because you know I had had alot of tick bites in my life but
I never remembered getting sickaround the time of the tick
bite Right but finally found Iwas carrying some of those
microbes, thought antibioticsthat's the solution.
So I took antibiotics.
(07:18):
I got worse.
It wrecked my gut and I wasreally in a pretty hopeless
state about that time.
This is around 2005.
I read a book about usingherbal therapy.
Pretty intense herbal protocolhad some good science behind it.
It made sense.
So I started using the herbsand I started crawling out of
(07:38):
the hole and getting better.
And that has been my life eversince of really looking at that
issue.
I've been taking herbs now for20 years.
I've enjoyed some of the besthealth that I've had in my
entire life over the past decade.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So it sounds like you exhausted all of the options
that were available to you inthe conventional medical world.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And in your book the Cellular Wellness Solution.
I mean, you really take thisdown to the cellular level.
That's about as small as youcan get.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So what did the research tell you?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, I think that one of our problems in our
conventional system is we don'ttake it to that level.
You know, if you want to solvea problem, break it down to its
smallest functional unit andwe're looking at the heart like
it was a unit, or our nervoussystem like it was a unit, and
those things are all made up ofthese individual units called
(08:33):
cells.
So when you look at the body,we are a collection of cells.
Every living thing is livingcells.
So living cells areindependently functioning units.
You can think about them aslittle biological machines that
have a job, that do work.
You know it's like our heartcells are working together to
(08:54):
make our heart work.
Our thyroid cells are makingthyroid hormone.
Everything that happens in yourbody is done by cells,
absolutely everything.
So if your cells aren't workingwell, that's, that's what
sickness is Sick cells are whathappens when we get sick.
And so if all your cells arefunctioning well and they're all
(09:18):
coordinated and everything isworking, all your cells are
working properly.
That's what wellness is.
It's really as simple as that.
Working All your cells areworking properly.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
That's what wellness is.
It's really as simple as that.
Why would you say that so manypeople and I don't know if this
is worldwide or just in America,but are developing chronic
illnesses at some point in theirlife?
What is going on?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
So you have these cells right.
So let's pick a cell in yourbody Heart cell, muscle cell,
doesn't really matter.
Every cell has five basicrequirements for staying healthy
.
Every cell in your body, allright.
So, number one your cells haveto have the right nutrients.
You have to eat a diet thatsupplies all the different cells
(10:00):
in your body the nutrients theyneed.
If they don't get that, theysuffer.
Cells need a clean and operatingenvironment.
So when we are exposed tounnatural toxic substances,
these things get embedded in ourcells and block cellular
functions.
So it's basically like throwingsand in the machinery of your
(10:21):
cell.
Your cell can work, but it hasto work a lot harder and it's
not going to work as well.
Cells need downtime to recoverfrom working all day and they
get that at nighttime when we'reasleep.
Cells need good blood flow,chiefly from moving, to flush
away toxic metabolic waste andother toxic substances and
(10:44):
congestion that builds up in ourtissues.
And cells need protection frommicrobes.
That's our cell's archenemy.
So you look at our world today.
Look at the food that peopleare eating.
It's really bad for our cells.
It's not a diet that isdesigned for cellular health.
Look at all the toxicsubstances we're exposed to Just
go outside and walk down ahighway for five minutes and
(11:06):
think about how much you'rebreathing in, or even inside
your home with all the toxicchemicals that get caught inside
.
And then there's our food.
All the toxic chemicals thatcome in our food Cells are
taking a big hit.
Average Americans sleep six anda half hours a night.
That's average.
So if you're sleeping only sixand a half hours, it means that
(11:27):
every day the next morning whenyou get up, you start with a
deficit that your cells haven'trecovered from the day before.
Modern humans are verysedentary.
We have machines that do allthe work we don't move.
We spend a lot of time doingwhat we're doing, sitting in
front of a computer screen,which is a little bit toxic in
(11:47):
itself.
And then think about the factthat we've got 8 billion people
on this earth and all of themare moving around like never
before and they're passing moremicrobes than we've ever been
exposed to before.
And a lot of these things arelow-grade things that get in our
system, that we don't even knowthey're there, but they're
(12:08):
affecting our cells.
So you put all those together,is there any surprise that
people are getting sicker thanthey used to be?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
And what is so wrong with these microbes being in our
bodies?
I mean, isn't our body designedto get rid of these?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, the microbes are an interesting variable,
that we're exposed to microbesthrough our entire lifetime,
continually.
That really don't make us verysick, and a good example is the
tick-borne microbes.
I didn't remember getting sickwhen I was bitten by ticks, so
we make the assumption.
Well, we didn't pick upanything Wrong.
(12:43):
Every time you get bitten by atick or a flea, or get scratched
or bitten by a cat or whatever,microbes enter your bloodstream
and enter your system, and thethings that we're exposed to the
very most don't have a highpotential to make us sick
acutely.
But what they do do is they'revery stealthy and they can
travel through the immune system.
(13:03):
They have sophisticated wayscan travel through the immune
system.
They have sophisticated ways ofgetting past the immune system.
They bury into our cells andthey do this throughout our body
, through our brain, our joints,all of our tissues.
Scientists are starting to callit the dormant blood and tissue
microbiome, because they canbury into our cells and if our
cells are healthy, then they cangrow dormant or slow their
(13:26):
growth, so the cells keep righton working.
So imagine all the things youwere exposed to as a child and
tick bites that you might've hadand times you were bitten by a
hamster or a cat, or scratched,and the times that all the
things that you've connectedwith other people, all those
things may still have a smallpresence in your body.
And so they're there.
(13:48):
They're opportunist, they'rewaiting until they get an
opportunity.
So you spend years eating badfood, exposed to toxic
substances, not getting enoughsleep, pushing that stress
button continually, not gettingexercise.
They start to erupt and theystart to break down your tissues
.
They start to break down yourcells.
(14:10):
Well, that's what chronic Lymeis, but it's also what all other
chronic illnesses are.
The connections go to multiplesclerosis, dementia.
Everywhere you want to go, youcan find aspects of this, and
I've been studying it for 20years and what I'm finding is,
using AI I'm accelerating thatresearch to find there's a lot
(14:33):
of very good evidence that thisis very, very real.
So, yeah, it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Well, and when I was reading your book, this part of
it was really alarming to me asjust potential data and
information, because I sufferfrom autoimmune conditions and
have always wondered why wouldmy body attack itself?
That doesn't seem like a normalway to operate.
So if you're saying thesemicrobes can live
(15:03):
intracellularly, then it bringsup the potential that maybe this
is the cause of autoimmune.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
At least it's worth exploring.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, these things starterupting for your cells and your
immune system says, oh, wecan't have that, and starts
attacking the cells where thosemicrobes are erupting from.
I don't think you can explainautoimmunity without considering
that possibility.
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Oh, and I love that you've taken it down to the
cellular level.
And so, brayden, I want to getyou in on this conversation and
maybe, dr Bill, you might have alittle bit more to say.
But as we transition into thevital plan business that you've
started to help supporteverything that you've learned,
can you tell us first what youhave learned about the power of
(15:50):
herbs, Like why herbs over othersupplements or over
conventional medicine?
Like what is it that's sowonderful about herbs?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That was a big awakening for me, because I'd
always discounted herbs as kindof being weak versions of drugs.
And now I realize it's applesand oranges.
They're nothing alike.
So what drugs are doing isblocking processes in the body
to reduce symptoms in some way.
So it's very artificial andit's not addressing those root
causes.
So it really doesn't doanything to improve cellular
(16:21):
stress, so the symptom doesn'treally go away.
So what we're doing with an herbis basically borrowing the
plant's entire defense andregulatory system.
So plants are always producinglots of chemicals to protect the
plant's cells from freeradicals, from toxic substances,
(16:43):
from microbes of every variety.
But at the same time it's in asystem with a certain amount of
intelligence to it that it's notlike an antibiotic.
That's one random chemical.
Here we're talking about asystem that affects pathogens
but it doesn't affect our normalflora.
So when you're taking an herb,unlike an antibiotic where you
(17:04):
kill off your gut flora, youactually spare your gut flora.
In fact, herbs actually helpbalance the gut flora because
they suppress pathogens withouthitting our normal flora, and
it's not just for bacteria orjust for protozoa, it's covering
all the different kinds ofmicrobes.
So when you take an herb you'regetting this really wonderful
(17:25):
system that's counteracting allof those stress factors that I
just talked about, including themicrobes, without having any
significant toxicity in the body.
That is pretty remarkable.
And then there's some herbscalled adaptogens that we
actually have the effect ofreducing our stress hormones.
You put that all together andit's just.
(17:46):
You can't find a bettersolution to the problem I just
outlined.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So, brayden, when did you decide to join your dad in
this mission?
How did that all take place?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, I will share.
I now am fully a believer inthe power of herbal therapy and
we're on this mission togetherto expand herbs to a wider
audience.
But you know, really it was DrRawls' personal journey I have
to call him Dr Rawls, not dad DrRawls.
So it was Dr Rawls' recoverythat first brought me in and
(18:21):
then fast forward.
These tens of thousands ofcustomer stories have firmly
made me a leader in this mission.
But my role in this story reallystarted with Dr Rawls' recovery
.
So when he was at the height ofstruggling with illness that
was 2005, I was in collegestudying business and
entrepreneurship and Dr Rawlswas able to largely shield me
(18:44):
during the height of hisstruggle.
So then I graduated fromcollege, got a job and I can
remember he visited one weekendand was just moving so slowly
and I finally got impatient,called him out Dad, you feel
like you're in a fog here andyou're walking so slowly.
(19:04):
What's going on?
He said let's go on a walk, aslow walk in the woods, and let
me share something with you.
And so during that walk hereally brought me in on how he
had had this disruption in hiscareer as an OBGYN, where I left
off with him to thisdebilitating struggle with
chronic illness, and that wasreally heartbreaking and very
(19:25):
difficult for me to hear.
So at the end of hearing thisstory, I said well, what can I
do to help?
Because we have a tendency towant to come in and fix things
for people when our loved onesare suffering.
And he said you can help me byhelping me to help other people.
I'm taking this herbal regimen,I'm improving my health.
(19:47):
I believe in it.
There's a lot more to learn,but I really I think that this
can help a lot of people.
Help me to use this strugglethat I've had to bring this
solution to a wider audience,and so that's really the start
of our journey together.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And once he mentioned the idea of working together to
reach a broader audience, whatdid you do?
I mean, you were still incollege, yeah, well, actually.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I had just graduated from college, had a job, and so
this was the first four years ofworking together.
It was nights and weekends,really, for Dr Rawls and myself.
We spent a lot of time onnights and weekends discussing
how we could create this programright out of his experience and
share it with patients.
And then he'd see patientsthroughout the day and then come
(20:31):
in the evenings and say well,here's what I learned.
I printed out these papers andI gave it to someone and they
came back and they had writtennotes all over this and they
gave me this feedback.
And so it was these learnings,and then we had this patient
base that gave us the volumesout of the gate to start
manufacturing products, toinspect specifications and
getting feedback there to reallylaunch this product line.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
What was it like starting an herbal supplement
business?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Well.
So we had this patient base outof the gate and I think that
that was key for us, because youhave to manufacture in
quantities of.
Back then it was maybe athousand bottles at a time.
I think that's even low now,these minimum order quantities.
But we had this built-inpopulation who was already
interested in herbal supplements, buying them from the local GNC
(21:20):
they preferred to buy them fromDr Rawls.
So we were able to source ahigher quality of ingredient and
then start bringing them to hispatient base and they loved the
products and had better resultsfrom these products than even
the list that he was giving themto go and buy on the Internet
or from local stores.
So that's how it really gotstarted, but certainly a
(21:42):
learning curve learning theregulatory environment, all the
manufacturing standards,bringing in some consulting,
help as we went.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
How did you develop your formulas?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
So we really look at those potency and purity.
So you want ingredients thatwork and that's been determined
by Dr Rawls and what are theactive constituents of that
particular herb that you want tolook for to ensure the potency?
What are the different parts ofthe herbs that might have
synergy and work together?
That's all been Dr Rawls andour R&D department.
(22:16):
But then on the purity side,that's about testing finding
suppliers that are trusted,sourcing ingredients correctly,
and then having the layers oftesting so that we can then have
that.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
It was having to learn supply chain and learn
sourcing of ingredients and youknow, and connecting with
manufacturers.
So she and I had to learn thebusiness from the very bottom up
and that was worthwhile.
You know a lot of businesses Iknow.
Just call up a supplementcompany or a manufacturer and
say, hey, make this for us.
And we weren't doing that, youknow.
(22:51):
We were having things made tovery specific specifications,
buying and sourcing our owningredients, and she and she and
I did all of that in thebeginning.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
And then what about sourcing, like, how can you
ensure that the ingredients thatyou're sourcing, that they meet
the standards or requirementsor hopes that you want for
formulating the best option foryour patients?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
That was a little bit of intuition and a little bit
of science and just putting itall together.
My whole approach was goingbeyond traditional medicine.
So I studied all the differentforms of traditional medicine
European, ayurvedic, chinese,all the rest of them but my
brain was still based in Westernscience and I was formulating
(23:40):
these ideas about cellularhealth and that sort of thing.
So what I was interested in ishow the chemistry of the plant
was affecting us at the cellularlevel or how it was affecting
microbes et cetera.
So plants have differentcharacteristics.
So it's all about problemsolving.
So the plant is protectingitself from any stress factors
(24:01):
that might be in that naturalenvironment and that determines
the phytochemistry, thechemistry of the plant that
you're going to get.
So some plants really don't jivewith human biochemistry very
well.
It's like you wouldn't make themistake of eating poison ivy
and expecting a medicinal effect.
So it's studying thosecharacteristics and then taking
(24:23):
that and seeing what people wereusing, seeing what my patients
had success with, and thentaking kind of the best of the
best and pulling that togetherin formulas, looking at what had
been historically used andbuilding out formulas.
And that was pretty exciting.
I enjoyed that.
We actually have several levelsof testing.
(24:44):
I mean, you know we all takethese products.
I want them good and I reallycare about the results that
people who use them have.
So you know, we just aren'tgoing to cut any corners there.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And if you don't mind sharing at the very beginning,
how much did it require for youto invest in order to start
VitalPlan?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, we were lucky that we had Dr Rawls' patient
base there at the time so wecould meet the minimum order
quantities.
And I'll say this was 15 yearsago and so the quantities were
lower at that time.
I think the threshold now toenter the market is higher.
So we were able to buy intothese smaller batches and then
get feedback from consumers,produce revenue and selling
(25:27):
those supplements.
Reinvesting the profits allowedus to then buy larger and
larger quantities.
We did take on angel investmentpretty early on, and so then,
in addition to stocking theproducts and having an R&D
budget then we were able tobuild a website, a support team
(25:48):
and start doing some marketing.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
And what was that process?
Like finding angels.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
We got lucky.
So we found first a physicianwho really believed in what we
were doing and it was purely apassion investment for him.
And then I connected with somelocal business advisors and then
one of those made a significantinvestment in the company early
on.
And then we have raised someadditional angel investment.
(26:12):
Some of that has been topurchase inventory to build out
our customer support programming.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You both really started this from the ground up.
What have been some of thebiggest challenges that you've
faced with?
Starting and trying to scaleyour supplement business?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Oh my goodness, it's been a roller coaster.
One of the biggest things isbreaking into a very crowded
space where people buy based ontrust, something they're going
to put in your body for healthreasons and so Dr Rawls had that
trust with his patients.
He has trust with people whoget to know him.
But there's definitely a trustbuilding period and so for
(26:53):
trying to scale, running digitalads in the beginning, that
really didn't work well for usbecause people hadn't heard of
Dr Rawls, heard of VitalPlan.
There wasn't trust, and sowe've had a very long sales
cycle.
Because there's education abouttypically the herbs we're using
are new to someone, we have toestablish the credibility, and
so that's really been achallenge with the marketing.
(27:16):
And then, in addition to that,we're in a regulated health
category of marketing claims.
So herbal supplements is reallyin between food and drug.
But if you're taking herbs,it's for a therapeutic effect,
but they work very differentlythan drugs, so you shouldn't be
making the same claims.
(27:36):
But it's an intended healtheffect.
So it's a no man's land formarketing and a lot of marketing
channels that are regulated.
They don't know how to decipherthese claims.
So it's taken some practice,some refining.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, it's.
Sometimes it's challenging totell people what the products
actually do in terms that theywill actually understand.
It's challenging.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, we're selling a product for a health benefit,
but we can't say what it does.
It's an odd space to be in ofmarketing.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, truly.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
That's very interesting and very challenging
, and I also I relate when yousay the digital marketing can
eat up dollars so quickly andyou don't necessarily get the
impact that you want.
So what strategies have beenthe most effective for growing
your brand beyond your patients?
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Yeah, really it's content marketing, right, the
education introducing Dr Rawlshaving his credibility, his
story is really compelling.
And then that education aboutthe herbs, the safety, the
results of these regimens, andthen, finally, customer success
stories, of which, when we werefirst launching, only had a
(28:54):
handful it was mainly Dr Rawls'story behind this regimen but
now we're in a position where wehave over 12,000 customer
stories, and so it's really thatarsenal customer stories that
we're leading with.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
That's so compelling, wow 12,000 customers is quite a
bit yeah we've impacted a lotof lives.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So I mean, for me at this point in my life, that's
what counts the very most, ishow many lives can we truly
impact, how much difference canwe make, how much can we change
the conversation?
Because, like you said, chronicillness is at 60% of the
population and growing, and here, in a country where we spend
(29:35):
more on health care than anycountry on earth and our
populace isn't healthy, it justscreams that we're not paying
attention to the right things.
And the equation for health, asI discussed, is fairly simple
and it's just if I can get thatacross to people, that concept
(29:57):
of content marketing, then youknow I've already accomplished
more through Vital Plan andchanging people's lives than
during my entire medical careerseeing patients in an office.
And so the more that I canbuild that out, the more that I
can build out the education andbuild products that actually
(30:18):
have true impact in people'slives, build programs that
people can follow to find thatpathway back to wellness, I can
have an enormous impact that Icould never have had just as a
conventional physician.
So I see a lot of power thereand empowerment of people, and
that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And are you planning to keep your business model as
direct to consumer, or have youexplored the potential for
retail?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Not retail.
I think the next channel thatwe would expand into is
practitioner partnership.
So we're doing a little bitthere, but a much more dedicated
push in the future that's goingto come with education to
practitioners about how to usethis protocol and we develop our
own network of practitioners.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Or maybe even all of the integrative physicians or
holistic practitioners who arealready sort of in line with
your way of thinking.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Sort of, but sometimes less than you would
think.
I mean, we live in a world thatdoctors, providers, don't talk
to patients anymore.
We've replaced all that withtesting.
We want data and something thatI found in my practice.
I was at a point in timefunctioning essentially the same
(31:34):
as what you would define asintegrative or functional
medicine.
I was doing all the testing.
I was doing all this stuff andwhat I found was the more I sat
down and talked to the patientand understood how things had
come together in their lives toimpact their health.
That provided the roadmap forthem to get well, and I just
(31:57):
didn't need to do any testing.
So I think we spend a lot moretime and effort and resources
testing people than we should.
We should be, you know, helpingpeople learn how to pay
attention to their own body, andthat's a lot of what I do is
help people realize the answersare all there.
The body is telling you exactlywhat you need to know all the
(32:19):
time.
It's screaming at you andpeople don't listen.
They go to a healthcareprovider and ignore that and pay
thousands and thousands andthousands of dollars for testing
.
It really doesn't end up movingthe needle very much, and
that's kind of where I am rightnow with.
I would like to havelike-minded providers that
(32:40):
recognize the importance of justhelping the patient understand
themselves, their own body andhow powerful these things can be
, and then minimizing, being alot smarter about our testing,
because we waste an enormousamount of resources on lab
testing.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
So when you say that the body is telling you, the
body is screaming at you, canyou elaborate on that?
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Your cells are screaming at you, right?
So yeah, when your cells arestressed, like if you trip and
twist your ankle, it hurts,right?
So those injured cells in yourankle are sending messages to
your brain that something iswrong.
So two things happen when cellsare injured.
(33:27):
One, they send a message to thebrain.
We feel it is pain.
So they're talking to you rightthere, they're sending you a
message.
But the second thing is, ifcells are compromised, they
can't do their jobs.
So you start to lose thatfunction.
So not only does your anklehurt, but you can't walk on it
very well, and if you keep doingthat, it's going to get worse
(33:50):
and worse and worse.
So you have to take the weightoff of it so it can heal.
So what healing is the abilityof cells to recover from stress.
That's what healing is.
A lot of people just they don'tunderstand that simple thing.
So if you have a symptom, yourcells are talking to you.
It doesn't matter where thatsymptom is.
(34:11):
So sometimes a symptom isspecific, like if you blocked an
artery in your heart, you'regoing to get chest pain.
Those cells are going to betalking to you.
But if you feel fatigued andyou just are feeling run down.
It means all the cells in yourbody are stressed and you really
should be paying attention.
Am I getting enough sleep?
Am I eating a decent diet?
(34:31):
Am I being exposed to toxicsubstances?
Is there mold growing in mybathroom or have I picked up
some new microbe that'saffecting my cells, this
wreaking havoc inside my body?
What's going on?
And people don't ask thosereally simple questions.
But those questions listeningto your body, listening to what
(34:51):
your cells are telling you aremore valuable than any lab you
can get.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
So insert vital plan.
We're building people aframework right that they can go
through and have that checklistand the support and the
resources to do that exercisethemselves, Instead of needing
to go through the testing andthen finding the treatment.
There's so much that people cando, that's affordable, it's
immediately accessible, and sowith VitalPlan we're hoping to
get more people started on thatpathway and ultimately save them
(35:19):
a lot of money, so are youproviding education materials on
the VitalPlan website?
Well, for a long time we sentthose materials via email, so
sold the products with purchaseof the products, we would send
an email series and PDFs.
And that just snowballed overthe years as we got feedback and
we said let's build thisresource to answer this question
(35:40):
.
So we have this huge databaseof resources for our support
team, and so just last summer webuilt an app that we call the
VitalPlan Network, and so wewere able to load all those
resources onto the app anddevelop a community and a place
where we can now go and interactwith our customers.
They can interact with eachother.
There's a whole library ofresources.
So for us, that's really thefuture is we'll be doubling down
(36:06):
on that app this year and tohave some new, more formalized
programming coming.
That is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I had no idea Hadn't seen that information yet, so I
will definitely go and check itout.
Dr Rawls, do you think andBrayden too, that with proper
supplementation with these herbsthat people can truly prevent
chronic illness?
How much is lifestyle impactingour chronic illness and how
(36:30):
much is our lack of nutrients?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, it's not lack of nutrients.
Everybody gets that one wrong.
It's like it's not vitamins andminerals.
Everybody's getting enoughvitamins and minerals.
You'd die if you didn't.
What the problem is is thisexcessive load of carbohydrate
and abnormal fats that we'regetting in our food and our
cells just aren't designed forthat.
That we're getting in our foodand our cells just aren't
(36:53):
designed for that.
You know our cells wereprogrammed for an ancient
foraging food diet that humansdid for hundreds of thousands of
years and that was lots ofvegetables and plant matter,
roots, stems, leaves and leananimals, and you know that's
what our cells are programmedfor.
But there wasn't muchcarbohydrate or fat on the menu.
You had to eat a lot of food,which means you ate a lot of
(37:15):
fiber for your gut to be normal.
Well, our current diet heavy incarbs, heavy in fat, low in
fiber, low in phytochemicals allthe things that we need the
very most to keep ourselveshealthy aren't there and they're
not programmed for this.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Okay, so the herbs are not nutrients.
It is specifically thephytochemical properties.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Ah, you're right, it's, you've got it.
You know, everybody likes toclassify oh, I'm taking my herbs
to get my nutrients.
No, that's not the answer.
It's the phytochemistry of theherb.
And if I had to label the onething that was most missing in
our current diet, it would bethe natural phytochemistry of
herbs.
Because you think about it,that ancient forage food diet
(38:01):
was about two-thirds plantmatter, but it was all wild
plants.
It was wild berries and stemsand leaves and roots and these
things were loaded with theseprotective phytochemicals.
So about 10,000 years ago, whenwe traded that for grains and
beans, those food sources arevery deficient in these
protective phytochemicals but wekind of sense that, humans
(38:25):
sense that.
So we kept our culinary herbsand we kept our medicinal herbs
and it kept that phytochemistrygoing even when we changed our
diet.
We gave all that up for about ahundred years ago and traded it
for drugs and we've beensuffering for it ever since.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It makes so much sense as you were talking I was
thinking about.
Okay, so does that mean incountries where they still
utilize herbs in such vastquantities, are they better off
than we are when it comes tochronic illness?
So I'm thinking of India orNepal or places like that.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
That's a good place to start.
Yeah, yeah, people in Indiaconsume lots of herbs in their
curries and they eat about agram of turmeric every day,
along with a lot of other herbs.
They use a lot of herbs intheir diet.
So, despite the fact that Indiais very overcrowded, very
polluted, has tons more microbesthan we do.
They have some of the lowestrates of cancer and Alzheimer's
(39:19):
in the world, and it'sattributed to the herbs that
they eat.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
So I want to ask what is it like working as a father
and daughter duo?
Speaker 1 (39:30):
It's been interesting .
I wouldn't trade it foranything in the world, Brayden,
I'll let you say, but I tell youit's been a gift, the whole
thing.
It's been a blessing.
I mean, I look at where I wasat age 50 and wondering if I'd
ever see 2025.
And here I am and it's justbeen glorious.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
I will echo that my dad and I have had many, many
close moments over the years anda lot of it is through working
together.
Of course, I'll share that itcan be hard to separate business
and personal if you partner ona company with a family member,
and so certainly holidays andany trips, we're always talking
about work and my mom and myhusband will say, all right, go
(40:11):
off, talk about the business,then come back.
We're always talking about workand my mom and my husband will
say, all right, go off, talkabout the business, then come
back.
We'll cut you off, but it'sbeen a lot of fun to work
together.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
How many people do you have on your team helping
you?
Speaker 3 (40:23):
So we currently have 10 employees but also work with
a large number of agencies andcontractors.
That's actually quite a bigbusiness.
Yeah, some of our team membersare customer success stories,
which has been very cool.
Right To have customers whobelieve in what we do so much
then that they've come back andwanted to work for the company,
(40:45):
and so, as part of the future,especially now that we have this
network, we'll be looking forwhat are more ways that we can
plug in this network ofcustomers who are so they have
this newfound passion for herbsand for healing.
How do we activate that, then,and bring them into the fold
with their talents?
Speaker 2 (41:02):
And so, looking forward to that as part of the
future, and as we start wrappingup this interview, I know we
have about 10 minutes left or so, but, dr Rawls, what are you
most excited about as far asmedical advancement goes for the
future?
Speaker 1 (41:17):
It's kind of a back to basics kind of thing.
I think we really, really missthe basics of cellular health.
And we're, you know, we try tofix things.
So you know, our first step tosolve a problem is create a
pharmaceutical for it.
And what I've just come toappreciate is, when it comes to
chronic illness, there is not apharmaceutical or medical
(41:38):
procedure made that can reversecellular health and therefore
promote healing not one, andthat's, I guess, more of a
disappointment.
I would like to see that change.
And there is a place formedicine.
You know, braden has heard mesay many times that I think
there's a place and a purposefor every pharmaceutical and
(41:58):
every medical procedure, but weoverutilize those things.
What we do well in conventionalmedicine is acute intervention.
What that does is it canstabilize a bad situation.
You know, when somebody has ablocked coronary artery, we can
unblock that artery and possiblysave their life.
But it's the body that's goingto heal.
(42:20):
Healing always has to come fromwithin the body and you know
it's a frustration.
I mean I see the oncologist,the cancer doctors patting
themselves on the back, going,wow, we've developed this new
innovative therapy that does abetter job of killing cancer
people, cancer cells, we cankeep more people from dying,
while the cancer rate is goingup and up and up and up and up,
(42:44):
and it's like you're doing zeroto actually prevent cancer.
We have a real problem here.
So you know.
As far as advancements intechnology, I think we need to
get back to the basics and startcatching up on that.
There are some advancements,though, and, quite frankly, I'm
using AI a lot to advance myknowledge faster, and what I'm
(43:05):
coming to the conclusion iseverything that I've thought as
far as theories.
I try to verify with scienceand there's a lot of great
science out there and I've beenable to verify everything that
I've mentioned so far but it'svery tedious, and, using AI, I
can forward that much faster.
I can pull the data together,and what I can tell you is we
(43:30):
know how to solve the problem ofchronic illness.
They're just barking up thewrong tree.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Well, I hope that you're right and I hope that we
can get back to the basics andlook more preventatively at how
we can have better health.
Going back to the business sideof what you two have created
together, what advice would yougive to an aspiring entrepreneur
any aspiring entrepreneur whocame to you and wanted to learn
(43:55):
from your journey?
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Stay lean and mean right.
Keep your expenses low, put outyour minimum viable products
that you can test and iterateand get feedback and improve and
you do that over and, over andover again, as opposed to
swinging for perfection out ofthe gate.
There's so much you can learnwith having that MVP right and
(44:17):
testing and underwriting on topof that.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Do you have plans to expand the line of offerings so
this year?
Speaker 3 (44:23):
we're expanding the product itself by releasing more
programming, launching thecommunity and the app around our
signature Restore program andeducation and inspiration around
that to live.
This we call the full VitalPlan lifestyle.
We've got more coming a lot oftricks up my sleeve of things
(44:54):
this new AI and tech to delivera more full experience and keep
that cost effective for thecustomer.
This is through the new app.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Okay, I can't wait to look it up.
So, as a final question here,Dr Bill Brayden, if you could go
back and talk with yourselveswhen you were in your early 20s,
what life wisdom would you giveyourself?
Speaker 3 (45:32):
the moon, and throughout my 20s that was my
expectation is that the businesshas to see rapid growth to be
successful.
And so I've now learned it'sgoing slower in the beginning,
iterating, getting it just right, building something that's rock
solid, that then over timeyou've iterated, you've
optimized and then you can scale.
So I'd say, be patient.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, I don't think I'd tell myself anything because
I would have to tell myselfabout some really difficult and
uncomfortable and unpleasantthings that were coming ahead
for me to get to where I am nowand it might have dissuaded me
from actually doing some ofthose things and they were
important.
Sometimes you have to gothrough that to get to a
(46:09):
different place or a betterplace, to go through that to get
to a different place or abetter place, and I can't trade
any of it because, wow, what anopportunity.
I just I would never know thethings that I know if I had not
had this opportunity that endedup being connected so closely
with Brayden and all the peoplethat we've connected through
(46:31):
with Vital Plan.
I just I'd never trade it foranything.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
It's kind of like you're exactly where you're
meant to be right now.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
That's the feel, yes.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Yeah, your experience was required in order for you
both to land in this wonderfulspot, and I love how you're
using impact as your driver ofsuccess, and I feel like that it
will, no matter what, continueto grow because your motivation
is so sincere.
I appreciate so much thatyou've come on the show and that
(47:03):
you've shared your story,shared some of your knowledge
with us, and I look forward tofollowing along with Vital Plan
Network and seeing what else youhave up your sleeve.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah, thank you, sleeve, thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Wonderful.
Thank you, Anne.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
If you've enjoyed this episode, or any episode,
could you do me a quick favor?
Share it with just one personin your life who might love it
too?
If each of you did that, we'dinstantly double our
listenership overnight, allowingus to bring in even more
incredible guests and continueproducing content that inspires
(47:38):
and empowers you.
Just one episode to one person.
I massively appreciate it.
Today's key takeaways If yourcells are stressed, you will
eventually feel it, whether it'sfatigue, brain fog, pain or
chronic illness.
Most of us treat symptomswithout looking deeper, but
(47:59):
every function in your bodystarts at the cellular level.
When your cells don't get whatthey need nutrients, rest,
detoxification, protection theycan't do their jobs.
That's where disease begins.
A new way to think aboutwellness is to ask what your
cells need, rather than whatpill can suppress the pain.
(48:21):
How are you treating your cells?
Are you sleeping enough, movingenough, minimizing toxins and
fueling yourself with the rightfood?
The average American gets onlysix and a half hours of sleep,
creating a daily deficit thatcompounds over time.
Sleep is when your body repairsand detoxifies.
(48:44):
Without it, your cells neverfully recover from the stress of
the day.
Over time, this leads tocellular breakdown and chronic
symptoms If you're tired,inflamed or mentally foggy,
sleep may be one of the firstthings to address before turning
to external fixes.
Chronic conditions may stemfrom dormant microbes that wake
(49:06):
up when your body is weakened.
Dr Rawls suggests that stealthmicrobes picked up through tick,
bites, scratches or even closecontact can lie dormant in your
cells for years.
When your system is understress, these microbes can erupt
and your immune system maymistakenly attack your own
tissues.
If you're living withautoimmune conditions, have you
(49:29):
explored microbial factors orcellular stress as possible root
causes?
Herbal supplements are not fortheir vitamins and minerals.
They're used for theirphytochemical properties, not
their nutrients.
Don't expect them to act likepills, but do explore their
cumulative benefits.
One of the most powerful thingsyou can do is listen to your
(49:53):
body and connect the dots inyour personal health story.
Dr Rawls says thatunderstanding how your life,
stress, habits and environmenthave affected your body can
sometimes be more revealing andempowering than expensive
diagnostics.
What is your body trying totell you?
Are you listening?
(50:15):
Brayden's entrepreneurial adviceis clear.
You don't need perfection tobegin.
You need clarity, feedback andpatience.
They launch their business byreinvesting profits, testing in
small batches and buildingslowly with education and impact
to build a strong foundation.
What's your minimum viable ideaor product?
(50:37):
Can you put it out into theworld before it's perfect and
then improve it through realfeedback?
If you're entering a crowdedmarket, build trust first,
especially in wellness.
Trust is currency.
In an industry full of hype andquick fixes, vital Plan built
credibility through storytelling, education and customer success
(50:59):
, not flashy ads.
After a lifetime in conventionalmedicine, dr Rawls says the
most meaningful work of his lifehas been empowering people
through education and herbs.
Their North Star is simpleimpact.
How many lives can they improve?
How much good can they do?
So in thinking about this,consider what does success mean
(51:25):
to you.
How do you measure your ownsuccess?
Dr Rawls believes many chronicillnesses are not mysterious at
all, but we're simply nottreating the real root causes.
Are we over-relying onprescription and ignoring
prevention?
What if true health is a returnto the basics?
And, as Dr Rawls says,sometimes you have to go through
(51:48):
hard times to get to a betterplace you never could have
imagined.
Vital Plan was born out ofsuffering and now it's helping
thousands.
And while you may notunderstand the reasons for any
hardship you may be facing, whatif you're exactly where you're
meant to be.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
(52:09):
Have a great day.
So what healing is?
The ability of cells to recoverfrom stress.
That's what healing is.
A lot of people just they don'tunderstand that simple thing.
So if you have a symptom, yourcells are talking to you.
It doesn't matter where thatsymptom is.
So sometimes a symptom isspecific, like if you blocked an
(00:20):
artery in your heart, you'regoing to get chest pain.
Those cells are going to betalking to you.
An artery in your heart, you'regoing to get chest pain.
Those cells are going to betalking to you.
But if you feel fatigued and youjust are feeling run down, it
means all the cells in your bodyare stressed and you really
should be paying attention.
Am I getting enough sleep?
Am I eating a decent diet?
Am I being exposed to toxicsubstances?
Is there mold growing in mybathroom?
(00:41):
Or have I picked up some newmicrobe that's affecting my
cells, this wreaking havocinside my bathroom?
Or have I picked up some newmicrobe that's affecting my
cells, this wreaking havocinside my body?
What's going on?
And people don't ask thosereally simple questions.
But those questions listeningto your body, listening to what
your cells are telling you aremore valuable than any lab you
can get you can get Welcome tohow I Built my Small Business.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm Anne McGinty, your host, and today's
conversation with Dr Bill Rawlsand Brayden Rawls is about
understanding health at acellular level.
Dr Bill Rawls is a licensedphysician with over 30 years of
experience in medicine.
After facing a personal healthcrisis in his early 40s, he
turned to herbal and alternativemedicine, restoring his health
(01:36):
and becoming a leading voice inholistic wellness.
He is the best-selling authorof the Cellular Wellness
Solution and serves as themedical director and co-founder
of VitalPlan, a holistic healthcompany and certified B
Corporation.
Brayden Rawls is the CEO andother co-founder of VitalPlan, a
(01:57):
company she established withher father, dr Bill Rawls, in
2008.
Under her leadership, vitalpPlan has developed meticulously
crafted supplement blends usingthe highest quality ingredients,
aiming to empower individualsto take control of their health.
The reason I reached out tothem is that the information in
(02:17):
Dr Rawls' book, the CellularWellness Solution, had me
buzzing from all that I learned,because it made so much sense
and provided a missing puzzlepiece in my healing journey.
I've been battling a coupleautoimmune diseases for about 15
years and in that time I'veseen at least a dozen different
(02:38):
endocrinologists, and each andevery one of them told me that
healing my own autoimmunecondition was impossible.
All solutions they offeredultimately led to surgically
removing my thyroid or killingit a major vital organ and I was
unwilling to accept this routeas a real solution for me, and
(03:01):
so I spent years reading booksto learn as much as I could
about thyroid health.
Fast forward to today, and,without medication, all of my
thyroid levels are back in thenormal range because of what
I've learned about healingthrough diet, lifestyle and
herbal supplements.
This is not medical advice.
The information and opinionspresented in this podcast are
(03:25):
for general information purposesonly and do not constitute
medical advice.
Always seek the advice of yourown physician or other qualified
healthcare provider with anyquestions you may have regarding
a medical condition.
Reliance on any informationprovided in this podcast is
solely at your risk.
Let's get started.
Information provided in thispodcast is solely at your risk.
(03:47):
Let's get started.
Dr Rawls Brayden, it is such apleasure to have you on the show
.
Thanks for coming on today.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Thank you Pleasure.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So, Dr Rawls, it's my understanding that you were an
obstetrician for many years andthen you pivoted into cellular
health.
Can you tell us the backgroundon why that transition happened?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, it wasn't planned, it was by accident as
much as anything.
You know I went into obstetricsand gynecology because it's
dealing with healthy people,wellness, bringing life into the
world.
But 30 years ago when I startedout with that, I was doing call
in the hospital 24 hour, callfor labor and delivery and the
(04:34):
emergency room every second tothird day and I was one of those
people that if somebody was inlabor or they were in the
hospital with a problem, Ididn't sleep.
So I went like 20 years sleepdeprived and just was pushing
that stress button all aroundthat and my body started falling
apart in my late 40s and thatcaused me to really take a
(04:57):
serious look at where I wasgoing personally and my health
in general.
I was in pretty bad shape bythe time I was 50.
And I changed my health habits.
But more than that, I startedusing herbal therapy pretty
intensely with the idea that Iwas carrying the microbes
associated with Lyme disease andjust had extraordinary results,
(05:21):
absolutely extraordinary.
So I've been the past 20 yearsreally studying that what
happened, why the herbs work,what was going on in my life,
and building out differentmodels for how we should be
addressing chronic illness thanwhat I learned in medical school
and it's really been veryfulfilling.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Can we go back a little bit more?
When you say that your body wasfalling apart, what do you mean
and why did you decide to startexploring herbs?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, that again was by accident too.
I started developing symptomsin every part of my body.
You know I'd been sleepdeprived.
But even when I gave upobstetrics call and things
didn't get better, I really lostthe ability to sleep normally
brain fog, neurological symptoms.
I was worried that I might bedeveloping MS.
(06:11):
But at the same time I hadirregular heartbeats.
My heart was jumping beatsevery second to third beat.
I had chronic chest pain, mygut was a wreck, my joints were
falling apart.
I mean pretty much my wholebody was in distress.
But at the same time, going toconventional physicians getting
labs, it's like well, you know,we did a cardiac cath, your
(06:34):
vessels are clear.
Here's a drug to help withthose irregular beats Great, and
well, you don't have quiteenough, you're not progressed
enough to be called NMS.
Here's some more drugs you cantake to help the symptoms Great,
and nothing to really put me ona trajectory to take me back to
wellness.
So it was several years ofasking that question what, why?
(06:56):
What's going on?
Why am I not getting better?
And coming back to thepossibility of Lyme disease?
Because you know I'd had a lotof tick bites in my life but I
never remembered getting sick tothe possibility of Lyme disease
because you know I had had alot of tick bites in my life but
I never remembered getting sickaround the time of the tick
bite Right but finally found Iwas carrying some of those
microbes, thought antibioticsthat's the solution.
So I took antibiotics.
(07:18):
I got worse.
It wrecked my gut and I wasreally in a pretty hopeless
state about that time.
This is around 2005.
I read a book about usingherbal therapy.
Pretty intense herbal protocolhad some good science behind it.
It made sense.
So I started using the herbsand I started crawling out of
(07:38):
the hole and getting better.
And that has been my life eversince of really looking at that
issue.
I've been taking herbs now for20 years.
I've enjoyed some of the besthealth that I've had in my
entire life over the past decade.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So it sounds like you exhausted all of the options
that were available to you inthe conventional medical world.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And in your book the Cellular Wellness Solution.
I mean, you really take thisdown to the cellular level.
That's about as small as youcan get.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So what did the research tell you?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, I think that one of our problems in our
conventional system is we don'ttake it to that level.
You know, if you want to solvea problem, break it down to its
smallest functional unit andwe're looking at the heart like
it was a unit, or our nervoussystem like it was a unit, and
those things are all made up ofthese individual units called
(08:33):
cells.
So when you look at the body,we are a collection of cells.
Every living thing is livingcells.
So living cells areindependently functioning units.
You can think about them aslittle biological machines that
have a job, that do work.
You know it's like our heartcells are working together to
(08:54):
make our heart work.
Our thyroid cells are makingthyroid hormone.
Everything that happens in yourbody is done by cells,
absolutely everything.
So if your cells aren't workingwell, that's, that's what
sickness is Sick cells are whathappens when we get sick.
And so if all your cells arefunctioning well and they're all
(09:18):
coordinated and everything isworking, all your cells are
working properly.
That's what wellness is.
It's really as simple as that.
Working All your cells areworking properly.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
That's what wellness is.
It's really as simple as that.
Why would you say that so manypeople and I don't know if this
is worldwide or just in America,but are developing chronic
illnesses at some point in theirlife?
What is going on?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
So you have these cells right.
So let's pick a cell in yourbody Heart cell, muscle cell,
doesn't really matter.
Every cell has five basicrequirements for staying healthy
.
Every cell in your body, allright.
So, number one your cells haveto have the right nutrients.
You have to eat a diet thatsupplies all the different cells
(10:00):
in your body the nutrients theyneed.
If they don't get that, theysuffer.
Cells need a clean and operatingenvironment.
So when we are exposed tounnatural toxic substances,
these things get embedded in ourcells and block cellular
functions.
So it's basically like throwingsand in the machinery of your
(10:21):
cell.
Your cell can work, but it hasto work a lot harder and it's
not going to work as well.
Cells need downtime to recoverfrom working all day and they
get that at nighttime when we'reasleep.
Cells need good blood flow,chiefly from moving, to flush
away toxic metabolic waste andother toxic substances and
(10:44):
congestion that builds up in ourtissues.
And cells need protection frommicrobes.
That's our cell's archenemy.
So you look at our world today.
Look at the food that peopleare eating.
It's really bad for our cells.
It's not a diet that isdesigned for cellular health.
Look at all the toxicsubstances we're exposed to Just
go outside and walk down ahighway for five minutes and
(11:06):
think about how much you'rebreathing in, or even inside
your home with all the toxicchemicals that get caught inside
.
And then there's our food.
All the toxic chemicals thatcome in our food Cells are
taking a big hit.
Average Americans sleep six anda half hours a night.
That's average.
So if you're sleeping only sixand a half hours, it means that
(11:27):
every day the next morning whenyou get up, you start with a
deficit that your cells haven'trecovered from the day before.
Modern humans are verysedentary.
We have machines that do allthe work we don't move.
We spend a lot of time doingwhat we're doing, sitting in
front of a computer screen,which is a little bit toxic in
(11:47):
itself.
And then think about the factthat we've got 8 billion people
on this earth and all of themare moving around like never
before and they're passing moremicrobes than we've ever been
exposed to before.
And a lot of these things arelow-grade things that get in our
system, that we don't even knowthey're there, but they're
(12:08):
affecting our cells.
So you put all those together,is there any surprise that
people are getting sicker thanthey used to be?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
And what is so wrong with these microbes being in our
bodies?
I mean, isn't our body designedto get rid of these?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, the microbes are an interesting variable,
that we're exposed to microbesthrough our entire lifetime,
continually.
That really don't make us verysick, and a good example is the
tick-borne microbes.
I didn't remember getting sickwhen I was bitten by ticks, so
we make the assumption.
Well, we didn't pick upanything Wrong.
(12:43):
Every time you get bitten by atick or a flea, or get scratched
or bitten by a cat or whatever,microbes enter your bloodstream
and enter your system, and thethings that we're exposed to the
very most don't have a highpotential to make us sick
acutely.
But what they do do is they'revery stealthy and they can
travel through the immune system.
(13:03):
They have sophisticated wayscan travel through the immune
system.
They have sophisticated ways ofgetting past the immune system.
They bury into our cells andthey do this throughout our body
, through our brain, our joints,all of our tissues.
Scientists are starting to callit the dormant blood and tissue
microbiome, because they canbury into our cells and if our
cells are healthy, then they cangrow dormant or slow their
(13:26):
growth, so the cells keep righton working.
So imagine all the things youwere exposed to as a child and
tick bites that you might've hadand times you were bitten by a
hamster or a cat, or scratched,and the times that all the
things that you've connectedwith other people, all those
things may still have a smallpresence in your body.
And so they're there.
(13:48):
They're opportunist, they'rewaiting until they get an
opportunity.
So you spend years eating badfood, exposed to toxic
substances, not getting enoughsleep, pushing that stress
button continually, not gettingexercise.
They start to erupt and theystart to break down your tissues
.
They start to break down yourcells.
(14:10):
Well, that's what chronic Lymeis, but it's also what all other
chronic illnesses are.
The connections go to multiplesclerosis, dementia.
Everywhere you want to go, youcan find aspects of this, and
I've been studying it for 20years and what I'm finding is,
using AI I'm accelerating thatresearch to find there's a lot
(14:33):
of very good evidence that thisis very, very real.
So, yeah, it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Well, and when I was reading your book, this part of
it was really alarming to me asjust potential data and
information, because I sufferfrom autoimmune conditions and
have always wondered why wouldmy body attack itself?
That doesn't seem like a normalway to operate.
So if you're saying thesemicrobes can live
(15:03):
intracellularly, then it bringsup the potential that maybe this
is the cause of autoimmune.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
At least it's worth exploring.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, these things starterupting for your cells and your
immune system says, oh, wecan't have that, and starts
attacking the cells where thosemicrobes are erupting from.
I don't think you can explainautoimmunity without considering
that possibility.
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Oh, and I love that you've taken it down to the
cellular level.
And so, brayden, I want to getyou in on this conversation and
maybe, dr Bill, you might have alittle bit more to say.
But as we transition into thevital plan business that you've
started to help supporteverything that you've learned,
can you tell us first what youhave learned about the power of
(15:50):
herbs, Like why herbs over othersupplements or over
conventional medicine?
Like what is it that's sowonderful about herbs?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That was a big awakening for me, because I'd
always discounted herbs as kindof being weak versions of drugs.
And now I realize it's applesand oranges.
They're nothing alike.
So what drugs are doing isblocking processes in the body
to reduce symptoms in some way.
So it's very artificial andit's not addressing those root
causes.
So it really doesn't doanything to improve cellular
(16:21):
stress, so the symptom doesn'treally go away.
So what we're doing with an herbis basically borrowing the
plant's entire defense andregulatory system.
So plants are always producinglots of chemicals to protect the
plant's cells from freeradicals, from toxic substances,
(16:43):
from microbes of every variety.
But at the same time it's in asystem with a certain amount of
intelligence to it that it's notlike an antibiotic.
That's one random chemical.
Here we're talking about asystem that affects pathogens
but it doesn't affect our normalflora.
So when you're taking an herb,unlike an antibiotic where you
(17:04):
kill off your gut flora, youactually spare your gut flora.
In fact, herbs actually helpbalance the gut flora because
they suppress pathogens withouthitting our normal flora, and
it's not just for bacteria orjust for protozoa, it's covering
all the different kinds ofmicrobes.
So when you take an herb you'regetting this really wonderful
(17:25):
system that's counteracting allof those stress factors that I
just talked about, including themicrobes, without having any
significant toxicity in the body.
That is pretty remarkable.
And then there's some herbscalled adaptogens that we
actually have the effect ofreducing our stress hormones.
You put that all together andit's just.
(17:46):
You can't find a bettersolution to the problem I just
outlined.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So, brayden, when did you decide to join your dad in
this mission?
How did that all take place?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, I will share.
I now am fully a believer inthe power of herbal therapy and
we're on this mission togetherto expand herbs to a wider
audience.
But you know, really it was DrRawls' personal journey I have
to call him Dr Rawls, not dad DrRawls.
So it was Dr Rawls' recoverythat first brought me in and
(18:21):
then fast forward.
These tens of thousands ofcustomer stories have firmly
made me a leader in this mission.
But my role in this story reallystarted with Dr Rawls' recovery
.
So when he was at the height ofstruggling with illness that
was 2005, I was in collegestudying business and
entrepreneurship and Dr Rawlswas able to largely shield me
(18:44):
during the height of hisstruggle.
So then I graduated fromcollege, got a job and I can
remember he visited one weekendand was just moving so slowly
and I finally got impatient,called him out Dad, you feel
like you're in a fog here andyou're walking so slowly.
(19:04):
What's going on?
He said let's go on a walk, aslow walk in the woods, and let
me share something with you.
And so during that walk hereally brought me in on how he
had had this disruption in hiscareer as an OBGYN, where I left
off with him to thisdebilitating struggle with
chronic illness, and that wasreally heartbreaking and very
(19:25):
difficult for me to hear.
So at the end of hearing thisstory, I said well, what can I
do to help?
Because we have a tendency towant to come in and fix things
for people when our loved onesare suffering.
And he said you can help me byhelping me to help other people.
I'm taking this herbal regimen,I'm improving my health.
(19:47):
I believe in it.
There's a lot more to learn,but I really I think that this
can help a lot of people.
Help me to use this strugglethat I've had to bring this
solution to a wider audience,and so that's really the start
of our journey together.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And once he mentioned the idea of working together to
reach a broader audience, whatdid you do?
I mean, you were still incollege, yeah, well, actually.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I had just graduated from college, had a job, and so
this was the first four years ofworking together.
It was nights and weekends,really, for Dr Rawls and myself.
We spent a lot of time onnights and weekends discussing
how we could create this programright out of his experience and
share it with patients.
And then he'd see patientsthroughout the day and then come
(20:31):
in the evenings and say well,here's what I learned.
I printed out these papers andI gave it to someone and they
came back and they had writtennotes all over this and they
gave me this feedback.
And so it was these learnings,and then we had this patient
base that gave us the volumesout of the gate to start
manufacturing products, toinspect specifications and
getting feedback there to reallylaunch this product line.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
What was it like starting an herbal supplement
business?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Well.
So we had this patient base outof the gate and I think that
that was key for us, because youhave to manufacture in
quantities of.
Back then it was maybe athousand bottles at a time.
I think that's even low now,these minimum order quantities.
But we had this built-inpopulation who was already
interested in herbal supplements, buying them from the local GNC
(21:20):
they preferred to buy them fromDr Rawls.
So we were able to source ahigher quality of ingredient and
then start bringing them to hispatient base and they loved the
products and had better resultsfrom these products than even
the list that he was giving themto go and buy on the Internet
or from local stores.
So that's how it really gotstarted, but certainly a
(21:42):
learning curve learning theregulatory environment, all the
manufacturing standards,bringing in some consulting,
help as we went.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
How did you develop your formulas?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
So we really look at those potency and purity.
So you want ingredients thatwork and that's been determined
by Dr Rawls and what are theactive constituents of that
particular herb that you want tolook for to ensure the potency?
What are the different parts ofthe herbs that might have
synergy and work together?
That's all been Dr Rawls andour R&D department.
(22:16):
But then on the purity side,that's about testing finding
suppliers that are trusted,sourcing ingredients correctly,
and then having the layers oftesting so that we can then have
that.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
It was having to learn supply chain and learn
sourcing of ingredients and youknow, and connecting with
manufacturers.
So she and I had to learn thebusiness from the very bottom up
and that was worthwhile.
You know a lot of businesses Iknow.
Just call up a supplementcompany or a manufacturer and
say, hey, make this for us.
And we weren't doing that, youknow.
(22:51):
We were having things made tovery specific specifications,
buying and sourcing our owningredients, and she and she and
I did all of that in thebeginning.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
And then what about sourcing, like, how can you
ensure that the ingredients thatyou're sourcing, that they meet
the standards or requirementsor hopes that you want for
formulating the best option foryour patients?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
That was a little bit of intuition and a little bit
of science and just putting itall together.
My whole approach was goingbeyond traditional medicine.
So I studied all the differentforms of traditional medicine
European, ayurvedic, chinese,all the rest of them but my
brain was still based in Westernscience and I was formulating
(23:40):
these ideas about cellularhealth and that sort of thing.
So what I was interested in ishow the chemistry of the plant
was affecting us at the cellularlevel or how it was affecting
microbes et cetera.
So plants have differentcharacteristics.
So it's all about problemsolving.
So the plant is protectingitself from any stress factors
(24:01):
that might be in that naturalenvironment and that determines
the phytochemistry, thechemistry of the plant that
you're going to get.
So some plants really don't jivewith human biochemistry very
well.
It's like you wouldn't make themistake of eating poison ivy
and expecting a medicinal effect.
So it's studying thosecharacteristics and then taking
(24:23):
that and seeing what people wereusing, seeing what my patients
had success with, and thentaking kind of the best of the
best and pulling that togetherin formulas, looking at what had
been historically used andbuilding out formulas.
And that was pretty exciting.
I enjoyed that.
We actually have several levelsof testing.
(24:44):
I mean, you know we all takethese products.
I want them good and I reallycare about the results that
people who use them have.
So you know, we just aren'tgoing to cut any corners there.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And if you don't mind sharing at the very beginning,
how much did it require for youto invest in order to start
VitalPlan?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, we were lucky that we had Dr Rawls' patient
base there at the time so wecould meet the minimum order
quantities.
And I'll say this was 15 yearsago and so the quantities were
lower at that time.
I think the threshold now toenter the market is higher.
So we were able to buy intothese smaller batches and then
get feedback from consumers,produce revenue and selling
(25:27):
those supplements.
Reinvesting the profits allowedus to then buy larger and
larger quantities.
We did take on angel investmentpretty early on, and so then,
in addition to stocking theproducts and having an R&D
budget then we were able tobuild a website, a support team
(25:48):
and start doing some marketing.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
And what was that process?
Like finding angels.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
We got lucky.
So we found first a physicianwho really believed in what we
were doing and it was purely apassion investment for him.
And then I connected with somelocal business advisors and then
one of those made a significantinvestment in the company early
on.
And then we have raised someadditional angel investment.
(26:12):
Some of that has been topurchase inventory to build out
our customer support programming.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You both really started this from the ground up.
What have been some of thebiggest challenges that you've
faced with?
Starting and trying to scaleyour supplement business?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Oh my goodness, it's been a roller coaster.
One of the biggest things isbreaking into a very crowded
space where people buy based ontrust, something they're going
to put in your body for healthreasons and so Dr Rawls had that
trust with his patients.
He has trust with people whoget to know him.
But there's definitely a trustbuilding period and so for
(26:53):
trying to scale, running digitalads in the beginning, that
really didn't work well for usbecause people hadn't heard of
Dr Rawls, heard of VitalPlan.
There wasn't trust, and sowe've had a very long sales
cycle.
Because there's education abouttypically the herbs we're using
are new to someone, we have toestablish the credibility, and
so that's really been achallenge with the marketing.
(27:16):
And then, in addition to that,we're in a regulated health
category of marketing claims.
So herbal supplements is reallyin between food and drug.
But if you're taking herbs,it's for a therapeutic effect,
but they work very differentlythan drugs, so you shouldn't be
making the same claims.
(27:36):
But it's an intended healtheffect.
So it's a no man's land formarketing and a lot of marketing
channels that are regulated.
They don't know how to decipherthese claims.
So it's taken some practice,some refining.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, it's.
Sometimes it's challenging totell people what the products
actually do in terms that theywill actually understand.
It's challenging.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, we're selling a product for a health benefit,
but we can't say what it does.
It's an odd space to be in ofmarketing.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, truly.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
That's very interesting and very challenging
, and I also I relate when yousay the digital marketing can
eat up dollars so quickly andyou don't necessarily get the
impact that you want.
So what strategies have beenthe most effective for growing
your brand beyond your patients?
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Yeah, really it's content marketing, right, the
education introducing Dr Rawlshaving his credibility, his
story is really compelling.
And then that education aboutthe herbs, the safety, the
results of these regimens, andthen, finally, customer success
stories, of which, when we werefirst launching, only had a
(28:54):
handful it was mainly Dr Rawls'story behind this regimen but
now we're in a position where wehave over 12,000 customer
stories, and so it's really thatarsenal customer stories that
we're leading with.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
That's so compelling, wow 12,000 customers is quite a
bit yeah we've impacted a lotof lives.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So I mean, for me at this point in my life, that's
what counts the very most, ishow many lives can we truly
impact, how much difference canwe make, how much can we change
the conversation?
Because, like you said, chronicillness is at 60% of the
population and growing, and here, in a country where we spend
(29:35):
more on health care than anycountry on earth and our
populace isn't healthy, it justscreams that we're not paying
attention to the right things.
And the equation for health, asI discussed, is fairly simple
and it's just if I can get thatacross to people, that concept
(29:57):
of content marketing, then youknow I've already accomplished
more through Vital Plan andchanging people's lives than
during my entire medical careerseeing patients in an office.
And so the more that I canbuild that out, the more that I
can build out the education andbuild products that actually
(30:18):
have true impact in people'slives, build programs that
people can follow to find thatpathway back to wellness, I can
have an enormous impact that Icould never have had just as a
conventional physician.
So I see a lot of power thereand empowerment of people, and
that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And are you planning to keep your business model as
direct to consumer, or have youexplored the potential for
retail?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Not retail.
I think the next channel thatwe would expand into is
practitioner partnership.
So we're doing a little bitthere, but a much more dedicated
push in the future that's goingto come with education to
practitioners about how to usethis protocol and we develop our
own network of practitioners.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Or maybe even all of the integrative physicians or
holistic practitioners who arealready sort of in line with
your way of thinking.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Sort of, but sometimes less than you would
think.
I mean, we live in a world thatdoctors, providers, don't talk
to patients anymore.
We've replaced all that withtesting.
We want data and something thatI found in my practice.
I was at a point in timefunctioning essentially the same
(31:34):
as what you would define asintegrative or functional
medicine.
I was doing all the testing.
I was doing all this stuff andwhat I found was the more I sat
down and talked to the patientand understood how things had
come together in their lives toimpact their health.
That provided the roadmap forthem to get well, and I just
(31:57):
didn't need to do any testing.
So I think we spend a lot moretime and effort and resources
testing people than we should.
We should be, you know, helpingpeople learn how to pay
attention to their own body, andthat's a lot of what I do is
help people realize the answersare all there.
The body is telling you exactlywhat you need to know all the
(32:19):
time.
It's screaming at you andpeople don't listen.
They go to a healthcareprovider and ignore that and pay
thousands and thousands andthousands of dollars for testing
.
It really doesn't end up movingthe needle very much, and
that's kind of where I am rightnow with.
I would like to havelike-minded providers that
(32:40):
recognize the importance of justhelping the patient understand
themselves, their own body andhow powerful these things can be
, and then minimizing, being alot smarter about our testing,
because we waste an enormousamount of resources on lab
testing.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
So when you say that the body is telling you, the
body is screaming at you, canyou elaborate on that?
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Your cells are screaming at you, right?
So yeah, when your cells arestressed, like if you trip and
twist your ankle, it hurts,right?
So those injured cells in yourankle are sending messages to
your brain that something iswrong.
So two things happen when cellsare injured.
(33:27):
One, they send a message to thebrain.
We feel it is pain.
So they're talking to you rightthere, they're sending you a
message.
But the second thing is, ifcells are compromised, they
can't do their jobs.
So you start to lose thatfunction.
So not only does your anklehurt, but you can't walk on it
very well, and if you keep doingthat, it's going to get worse
(33:50):
and worse and worse.
So you have to take the weightoff of it so it can heal.
So what healing is the abilityof cells to recover from stress.
That's what healing is.
A lot of people just they don'tunderstand that simple thing.
So if you have a symptom, yourcells are talking to you.
It doesn't matter where thatsymptom is.
(34:11):
So sometimes a symptom isspecific, like if you blocked an
artery in your heart, you'regoing to get chest pain.
Those cells are going to betalking to you.
But if you feel fatigued andyou just are feeling run down.
It means all the cells in yourbody are stressed and you really
should be paying attention.
Am I getting enough sleep?
Am I eating a decent diet?
(34:31):
Am I being exposed to toxicsubstances?
Is there mold growing in mybathroom or have I picked up
some new microbe that'saffecting my cells, this
wreaking havoc inside my body?
What's going on?
And people don't ask thosereally simple questions.
But those questions listeningto your body, listening to what
(34:51):
your cells are telling you aremore valuable than any lab you
can get.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
So insert vital plan.
We're building people aframework right that they can go
through and have that checklistand the support and the
resources to do that exercisethemselves, Instead of needing
to go through the testing andthen finding the treatment.
There's so much that people cando, that's affordable, it's
immediately accessible, and sowith VitalPlan we're hoping to
get more people started on thatpathway and ultimately save them
(35:19):
a lot of money, so are youproviding education materials on
the VitalPlan website?
Well, for a long time we sentthose materials via email, so
sold the products with purchaseof the products, we would send
an email series and PDFs.
And that just snowballed overthe years as we got feedback and
we said let's build thisresource to answer this question
(35:40):
.
So we have this huge databaseof resources for our support
team, and so just last summer webuilt an app that we call the
VitalPlan Network, and so wewere able to load all those
resources onto the app anddevelop a community and a place
where we can now go and interactwith our customers.
They can interact with eachother.
There's a whole library ofresources.
So for us, that's really thefuture is we'll be doubling down
(36:06):
on that app this year and tohave some new, more formalized
programming coming.
That is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I had no idea Hadn't seen that information yet, so I
will definitely go and check itout.
Dr Rawls, do you think andBrayden too, that with proper
supplementation with these herbsthat people can truly prevent
chronic illness?
How much is lifestyle impactingour chronic illness and how
(36:30):
much is our lack of nutrients?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, it's not lack of nutrients.
Everybody gets that one wrong.
It's like it's not vitamins andminerals.
Everybody's getting enoughvitamins and minerals.
You'd die if you didn't.
What the problem is is thisexcessive load of carbohydrate
and abnormal fats that we'regetting in our food and our
cells just aren't designed forthat.
That we're getting in our foodand our cells just aren't
(36:53):
designed for that.
You know our cells wereprogrammed for an ancient
foraging food diet that humansdid for hundreds of thousands of
years and that was lots ofvegetables and plant matter,
roots, stems, leaves and leananimals, and you know that's
what our cells are programmedfor.
But there wasn't muchcarbohydrate or fat on the menu.
You had to eat a lot of food,which means you ate a lot of
(37:15):
fiber for your gut to be normal.
Well, our current diet heavy incarbs, heavy in fat, low in
fiber, low in phytochemicals allthe things that we need the
very most to keep ourselveshealthy aren't there and they're
not programmed for this.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Okay, so the herbs are not nutrients.
It is specifically thephytochemical properties.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Ah, you're right, it's, you've got it.
You know, everybody likes toclassify oh, I'm taking my herbs
to get my nutrients.
No, that's not the answer.
It's the phytochemistry of theherb.
And if I had to label the onething that was most missing in
our current diet, it would bethe natural phytochemistry of
herbs.
Because you think about it,that ancient forage food diet
(38:01):
was about two-thirds plantmatter, but it was all wild
plants.
It was wild berries and stemsand leaves and roots and these
things were loaded with theseprotective phytochemicals.
So about 10,000 years ago, whenwe traded that for grains and
beans, those food sources arevery deficient in these
protective phytochemicals but wekind of sense that, humans
(38:25):
sense that.
So we kept our culinary herbsand we kept our medicinal herbs
and it kept that phytochemistrygoing even when we changed our
diet.
We gave all that up for about ahundred years ago and traded it
for drugs and we've beensuffering for it ever since.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It makes so much sense as you were talking I was
thinking about.
Okay, so does that mean incountries where they still
utilize herbs in such vastquantities, are they better off
than we are when it comes tochronic illness?
So I'm thinking of India orNepal or places like that.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
That's a good place to start.
Yeah, yeah, people in Indiaconsume lots of herbs in their
curries and they eat about agram of turmeric every day,
along with a lot of other herbs.
They use a lot of herbs intheir diet.
So, despite the fact that Indiais very overcrowded, very
polluted, has tons more microbesthan we do.
They have some of the lowestrates of cancer and Alzheimer's
(39:19):
in the world, and it'sattributed to the herbs that
they eat.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
So I want to ask what is it like working as a father
and daughter duo?
Speaker 1 (39:30):
It's been interesting .
I wouldn't trade it foranything in the world, Brayden,
I'll let you say, but I tell youit's been a gift, the whole
thing.
It's been a blessing.
I mean, I look at where I wasat age 50 and wondering if I'd
ever see 2025.
And here I am and it's justbeen glorious.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
I will echo that my dad and I have had many, many
close moments over the years anda lot of it is through working
together.
Of course, I'll share that itcan be hard to separate business
and personal if you partner ona company with a family member,
and so certainly holidays andany trips, we're always talking
about work and my mom and myhusband will say, all right, go
(40:11):
off, talk about the business,then come back.
We're always talking about workand my mom and my husband will
say, all right, go off, talkabout the business, then come
back.
We'll cut you off, but it'sbeen a lot of fun to work
together.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
How many people do you have on your team helping
you?
Speaker 3 (40:23):
So we currently have 10 employees but also work with
a large number of agencies andcontractors.
That's actually quite a bigbusiness.
Yeah, some of our team membersare customer success stories,
which has been very cool.
Right To have customers whobelieve in what we do so much
then that they've come back andwanted to work for the company,
(40:45):
and so, as part of the future,especially now that we have this
network, we'll be looking forwhat are more ways that we can
plug in this network ofcustomers who are so they have
this newfound passion for herbsand for healing.
How do we activate that, then,and bring them into the fold
with their talents?
Speaker 2 (41:02):
And so, looking forward to that as part of the
future, and as we start wrappingup this interview, I know we
have about 10 minutes left or so, but, dr Rawls, what are you
most excited about as far asmedical advancement goes for the
future?
Speaker 1 (41:17):
It's kind of a back to basics kind of thing.
I think we really, really missthe basics of cellular health.
And we're, you know, we try tofix things.
So you know, our first step tosolve a problem is create a
pharmaceutical for it.
And what I've just come toappreciate is, when it comes to
chronic illness, there is not apharmaceutical or medical
(41:38):
procedure made that can reversecellular health and therefore
promote healing not one, andthat's, I guess, more of a
disappointment.
I would like to see that change.
And there is a place formedicine.
You know, braden has heard mesay many times that I think
there's a place and a purposefor every pharmaceutical and
(41:58):
every medical procedure, but weoverutilize those things.
What we do well in conventionalmedicine is acute intervention.
What that does is it canstabilize a bad situation.
You know, when somebody has ablocked coronary artery, we can
unblock that artery and possiblysave their life.
But it's the body that's goingto heal.
(42:20):
Healing always has to come fromwithin the body and you know
it's a frustration.
I mean I see the oncologist,the cancer doctors patting
themselves on the back, going,wow, we've developed this new
innovative therapy that does abetter job of killing cancer
people, cancer cells, we cankeep more people from dying,
while the cancer rate is goingup and up and up and up and up,
(42:44):
and it's like you're doing zeroto actually prevent cancer.
We have a real problem here.
So you know.
As far as advancements intechnology, I think we need to
get back to the basics and startcatching up on that.
There are some advancements,though, and, quite frankly, I'm
using AI a lot to advance myknowledge faster, and what I'm
(43:05):
coming to the conclusion iseverything that I've thought as
far as theories.
I try to verify with scienceand there's a lot of great
science out there and I've beenable to verify everything that
I've mentioned so far but it'svery tedious, and, using AI, I
can forward that much faster.
I can pull the data together,and what I can tell you is we
(43:30):
know how to solve the problem ofchronic illness.
They're just barking up thewrong tree.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Well, I hope that you're right and I hope that we
can get back to the basics andlook more preventatively at how
we can have better health.
Going back to the business sideof what you two have created
together, what advice would yougive to an aspiring entrepreneur
any aspiring entrepreneur whocame to you and wanted to learn
(43:55):
from your journey?
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Stay lean and mean right.
Keep your expenses low, put outyour minimum viable products
that you can test and iterateand get feedback and improve and
you do that over and, over andover again, as opposed to
swinging for perfection out ofthe gate.
There's so much you can learnwith having that MVP right and
(44:17):
testing and underwriting on topof that.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Do you have plans to expand the line of offerings so
this year?
Speaker 3 (44:23):
we're expanding the product itself by releasing more
programming, launching thecommunity and the app around our
signature Restore program andeducation and inspiration around
that to live.
This we call the full VitalPlan lifestyle.
We've got more coming a lot oftricks up my sleeve of things
(44:54):
this new AI and tech to delivera more full experience and keep
that cost effective for thecustomer.
This is through the new app.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Okay, I can't wait to look it up.
So, as a final question here,Dr Bill Brayden, if you could go
back and talk with yourselveswhen you were in your early 20s,
what life wisdom would you giveyourself?
Speaker 3 (45:32):
the moon, and throughout my 20s that was my
expectation is that the businesshas to see rapid growth to be
successful.
And so I've now learned it'sgoing slower in the beginning,
iterating, getting it just right, building something that's rock
solid, that then over timeyou've iterated, you've
optimized and then you can scale.
So I'd say, be patient.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, I don't think I'd tell myself anything because
I would have to tell myselfabout some really difficult and
uncomfortable and unpleasantthings that were coming ahead
for me to get to where I am nowand it might have dissuaded me
from actually doing some ofthose things and they were
important.
Sometimes you have to gothrough that to get to a
(46:09):
different place or a betterplace, to go through that to get
to a different place or abetter place, and I can't trade
any of it because, wow, what anopportunity.
I just I would never know thethings that I know if I had not
had this opportunity that endedup being connected so closely
with Brayden and all the peoplethat we've connected through
(46:31):
with Vital Plan.
I just I'd never trade it foranything.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
It's kind of like you're exactly where you're
meant to be right now.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
That's the feel, yes.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Yeah, your experience was required in order for you
both to land in this wonderfulspot, and I love how you're
using impact as your driver ofsuccess, and I feel like that it
will, no matter what, continueto grow because your motivation
is so sincere.
I appreciate so much thatyou've come on the show and that
(47:03):
you've shared your story,shared some of your knowledge
with us, and I look forward tofollowing along with Vital Plan
Network and seeing what else youhave up your sleeve.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah, thank you, sleeve, thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Wonderful.
Thank you, Anne.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
If you've enjoyed this episode, or any episode,
could you do me a quick favor?
Share it with just one personin your life who might love it
too?
If each of you did that, we'dinstantly double our
listenership overnight, allowingus to bring in even more
incredible guests and continueproducing content that inspires
(47:38):
and empowers you.
Just one episode to one person.
I massively appreciate it.
Today's key takeaways If yourcells are stressed, you will
eventually feel it, whether it'sfatigue, brain fog, pain or
chronic illness.
Most of us treat symptomswithout looking deeper, but
(47:59):
every function in your bodystarts at the cellular level.
When your cells don't get whatthey need nutrients, rest,
detoxification, protection theycan't do their jobs.
That's where disease begins.
A new way to think aboutwellness is to ask what your
cells need, rather than whatpill can suppress the pain.
(48:21):
How are you treating your cells?
Are you sleeping enough, movingenough, minimizing toxins and
fueling yourself with the rightfood?
The average American gets onlysix and a half hours of sleep,
creating a daily deficit thatcompounds over time.
Sleep is when your body repairsand detoxifies.
(48:44):
Without it, your cells neverfully recover from the stress of
the day.
Over time, this leads tocellular breakdown and chronic
symptoms If you're tired,inflamed or mentally foggy,
sleep may be one of the firstthings to address before turning
to external fixes.
Chronic conditions may stemfrom dormant microbes that wake
(49:06):
up when your body is weakened.
Dr Rawls suggests that stealthmicrobes picked up through tick,
bites, scratches or even closecontact can lie dormant in your
cells for years.
When your system is understress, these microbes can erupt
and your immune system maymistakenly attack your own
tissues.
If you're living withautoimmune conditions, have you
(49:29):
explored microbial factors orcellular stress as possible root
causes?
Herbal supplements are not fortheir vitamins and minerals.
They're used for theirphytochemical properties, not
their nutrients.
Don't expect them to act likepills, but do explore their
cumulative benefits.
One of the most powerful thingsyou can do is listen to your
(49:53):
body and connect the dots inyour personal health story.
Dr Rawls says thatunderstanding how your life,
stress, habits and environmenthave affected your body can
sometimes be more revealing andempowering than expensive
diagnostics.
What is your body trying totell you?
Are you listening?
(50:15):
Brayden's entrepreneurial adviceis clear.
You don't need perfection tobegin.
You need clarity, feedback andpatience.
They launch their business byreinvesting profits, testing in
small batches and buildingslowly with education and impact
to build a strong foundation.
What's your minimum viable ideaor product?
(50:37):
Can you put it out into theworld before it's perfect and
then improve it through realfeedback?
If you're entering a crowdedmarket, build trust first,
especially in wellness.
Trust is currency.
In an industry full of hype andquick fixes, vital Plan built
credibility through storytelling, education and customer success
(50:59):
, not flashy ads.
After a lifetime in conventionalmedicine, dr Rawls says the
most meaningful work of his lifehas been empowering people
through education and herbs.
Their North Star is simpleimpact.
How many lives can they improve?
How much good can they do?
So in thinking about this,consider what does success mean
(51:25):
to you.
How do you measure your ownsuccess?
Dr Rawls believes many chronicillnesses are not mysterious at
all, but we're simply nottreating the real root causes.
Are we over-relying onprescription and ignoring
prevention?
What if true health is a returnto the basics?
And, as Dr Rawls says,sometimes you have to go through
(51:48):
hard times to get to a betterplace you never could have
imagined.
Vital Plan was born out ofsuffering and now it's helping
thousands.
And while you may notunderstand the reasons for any
hardship you may be facing, whatif you're exactly where you're
meant to be.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
(52:09):
Have a great day.
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