Welcome to another enlightening episode of The Heart-Led Business Show.
In today’s conversation, we delve into the life-changing narrative of Dr. Linell King, a medical doctor whose traditional training took a backseat as he embraced the holistic approach of preventive functional medicine.
Join us as Dr. King shares his awakening, catalyzed by his father’s struggle with pancreatic cancer, which steered him towards valuing overall wellness above the mere treatment of symptoms. Are you prepared to be moved by a story of transformation that bridges the gap between heart and health?
Press play and let the journey unfold!
Key Takeaways from This Episode:
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- Dr. King opens up about the hurdles and revelations encountered while transitioning from a profitable hospitalist position to establishing a compassionate, patient-centric enterprise.
- “Health Is Your True Wealth.” – Dr. Linell King
- Discover how Dr. King’s commitment to marrying medical knowledge with preventive care has reshaped his destiny.
- Dr. King sheds light on the paradigm shift brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting a collective reassessment of personal health responsibilities.
Tune in now to explore how Dr. King’s practice, Naples Vitality, guides individuals to peak health through bespoke care strategies and transformative lifestyle changes.
About Dr. King:
Dr. Linell King: A trailblazing functional medicine doctor, educator, and lifestyle mentor. With a passion for preventive care, he’s rewriting the rules of health. From prescriptions to vitality, Dr. King’s heart-led approach is transforming lives.
Connect with Dr. Linell King on his social media platform:
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Connect with me on social media and let’s exchange a heart-led wisdom.
Teasers & Announcements:
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- Unlock Your Sales Superpower: Elevate your Health and Wellness sales with our free ‘What Why What Why’ Sales Framework training. Integrity in selling starts here! Get started here: https://go.businessleadmaximizer.com/script-training
- Spread the Heart-Led Message: Loved the episode? Your review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify fuels our mission.
Explore the Dialogue’s Treasures into the profound wisdom woven throughout the conversation.
0:01
Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jacobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let’s go. Let your heart guide your business journey.
Tom: 0:37
All right, get ready folks for a fabulously fit, fun, and favorably frank Dr. Linell King, a renegade in robes who traded prescriptions for passion, pills for prevention, and sickness for health. He’s on a rollican roll to reveal how our true wealth is our health. So buckle up because the heart led business show today, we’re diving deep into the delightful duties of owning a heart led health hustle. So welcome to the show, Dr. King.
Dr. King: 1:09
Well, thank you so much. Very happy to be here.
Tom: 1:12
So good to have you. And I, I love asking this very first question because it’s all about your definition of what a heart led business is.
Dr. King: 1:23
My definition is when the business is come, it, it, it’s blossomed from a passion and usually that passion stems from some personal experience that, that you’re passionate about. Oh, cool. So what, what’s, what inspired you then to start your heart led business and maybe give background of what your business is and, and then what inspired you to, Yeah, absolutely. So, I’m a physician and I was trained traditionally. I’m an MD. I did medical school, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. I did my specialty training in internal medicine at Hopkins. So doesn’t get any more traditional than that. But when I was in my residency my dad got sick and my mom called me and, and told me that my dad had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And for those that you don’t know, pancreatic cancer comes with a four month destinate. And so you can imagine the shock, cause my dad was healthy or at least I thought he was. And so then, I flew home. I spent a month with him. I basically took off from, from residency. He went through this horrible surgery called a Whipple procedure. He was in the hospital almost a month. And at the end of it all, the doctor said, well, we got, The mass, but there’s likely still cancer cells. They’re recommended chemo. Chemo wasn’t shown to really help with pancreatic cancer. So my dad says, no, I’ve suffered enough. And, but he didn’t want to just give up, and so I had to figure something out or tried to figure something out. I did a lot of research. I found. This institute called the Optimal Health Institute in San Diego. I enrolled both of us there and we were only able to be there one week cause his lungs started filling up with malignant fluid. Cause he was just, too far along in the cancer. But in that one week that we were there, I learned more about nutrition, more about health, more about digestion, the way the body heals itself. I learned more about all of that in that one week. Then. The four years in medical school and the three years I had completed at Johns Hopkins. And I remember my dad looking up at me after one of the classes and, and, his face was all sunken in. He had lost a whole bunch of weight and he just says. If only I would have known about this sooner. And that was, that, that was the most helpless feeling, that, that I’ve had ever. I had all this knowledge, went to all the best institutions, yet, I had no answers for my dad. All I could say was, me too. And so it was at that point when the seed was, was kind of planted, where I just was determined I wasn’t gonna let anyone else die or, or, or suffer without the knowledge. And then I got my dad home, he passed away right at the four month mark after he was diagnosed. And, and it’s been a journey ever since then.
Tom: 4:19
Yeah. So did you continue on with your traditional training?
Dr. King: 4:23
A good friend of mine convinced me to go ahead and finish because, as you can imagine, I was not in the right mental space. So I went out and finished and, and I started trying to carry out that mission by, I published a magazine. Called Family Health Guide and Vital Choices, two magazines focused on prevention. They failed horribly because I didn’t know anything about the advertising industry. And that’s the only way that the magazine made money. Cause I was determined that it was going to be a free magazine. I wanted to get it into the hands of everyone, right. Talking about a heartfelt It was all heart. Not much brain. And so it was, it should have been a nonprofit is what it. So I did that for three years and I was working in the hospital. And so basically I would take my paycheck from the hospital and fund the magazine. And I just did it till I couldn’t do it any longer. And so when I had to close the magazine down, then I just was working in the hospital. Business was great, but I wasn’t fulfilled. There was a hole there because I wasn’t doing what. I promised, myself and my dad that I would do. But I practiced for like 15 years until the, the point where I started to get sick. I started to gain weight and having pain and inflammation and all of that. And so I had to step away and really kind of get my own health together and reconnect to my purpose that I had stepped away from.
Tom: 5:56
Wow. So what, what was it that you were practicing? So what was the, for the 15 years, traditional medicine?
Dr. King: 6:02
Yeah, so I was a hospitalist, so I worked in the hospital taking care of people at their sickest, and we would get people well enough to go home most of the time, but they just end up right back in the hospital, whether it’s a year later, whether it’s three years later, and here’s the thing, they end up back in the hospital on more medications, not less, they end up back sicker, not healthier. And the reason is because we have a broken healthcare system that really focuses on treating the symptoms of the issues. No one’s getting to the root cause. And so when I realized that, well, I realized that for a long time, but when, when it really started hitting home, I just couldn’t do it any longer, and I refused. So what I did was I got further training. got further training in what’s called functional medicine or integrative medicine. It’s the study of how the body functions optimally. We’re trained to get to the root cause of the issue rather than just putting band aids on the symptoms. So I made that switch in 2013, and I haven’t looked back since. Now we’ve helped thousands of people. Optimize their health, get down to their ideal body weights, get off of medications. It’s, it’s amazing what the body is capable of. And so that’s, that’s what I do now. And we help people virtually, I have clients all over the, all over the country.
Tom: 7:23
That’s very cool. So in 2013, what did that transition look like from, I can only imagine a nice steady paycheck, steady customers, so to speak, coming into the hospital to functional medicine and doing the training and having to do cash pay versus insurance pay. What’d that look like for you?
Dr. King: 7:45
Yeah, it was scary is what it was. All my colleagues thought I was nuts. It’s like, wait a minute, you’re going to go from stepping away from all of this, cause we were making a lot of money, all of this to doing what you’re going to be a health coach, what, they have to pay for it, they have to do all the work. And so that’s basically what it was like. So how I transitioned was I had to focus on myself first. So I, I got all the knowledge that I needed to really transform my health. And through my journey, what I did was I journaled it all, and then I wrote a book about how I did it called Mastering Vitality. Once I wrote the book, and then, we, we sold the business, the medical group. And so I was able to live off of, the sale of the business for, for a bit. And so then I was just basically just focused to focus on the book and getting the word out right back into that publishing kind of, the media cause I felt like that was the best tool, the best vehicle to reach. The masses, but again, there’s a big learning curve when it comes to business and, and how to get the information out and this whole social media thing. And so I tried to do it all social media podcast, wrote a book. I was traveling around speaking on other people’s stages. I would basically speak to anyone who would listen. And it was exhausting. And then people wanted me to help them. Right. And so then I said, okay, well, I’ll coach you and dah, dah, dah. So basically, I went from being a physician to a health coach, like literally. And then it, it, it just, at some point I said, well, this actually has to make money. I have to be able to support myself with this. And it was at that time is when I decided to open up Naples Vitality, Vitality. and do functional medicine and, and, and really create. a business around it versus a hobby because that’s what it was before. It was a hobby, it was a heartfelt hobby. So I needed to turn it into a profitable business. I needed to help more people. I needed to have a consistent and persistent, marketing strategy, the whole thing, because here’s the thing we were getting people better. And so our programs, I, we have a promise in our programs. We’re going to get you to a destination within a timeframe, whether it’s three months, six months, nine months, whatever it is. We’re going to get you there and you’re not going to need us anymore. So again, from a business standpoint, that’s not too smart. Right? When you’re a doctor, they’re always sick. They’re always going to be sick. They’re always coming back. Right? That’s a, that’s a very good business model. There’s, there’s no money in getting people healthy where you don’t have patients anymore, right? Well, what I do now, they get better where they don’t need me anymore. And that’s, that’s what I want. But now I have to continuously market because we’re, we’re, we’re trying to heal the masses and, and help them heal themselves and give them health independence.
Tom: 11:04
So how, how do you, how do you balance then the, obviously the need to make money and grow the business and, and, and at the same time, help people achieve the goal that they want to achieve?
Dr. King: 11:19
I think that one of the misconceptions of business is that you can’t do both. When in actuality, to have a very successful business, you have to do both. You have to be very good at delivering the results that people want. So that’s the first thing that you have to master is delivery of results. Because once you do that, then you have another form of marketing and that’s referrals. And so we have more testimonials and like any physician that I know, we have a huge referral base. And it’s because, we’ve, we’ve mastered our, our, our craft and we know how to get. People better, not just because we know what treatments to give, but we’ve mastered the mindset piece. We know what’s sustainable. We know how to get people to do the things that they’ve been trying to do forever, but they just haven’t been able to get themselves to do. We’ve mastered that. There’s so many aspects that are involved of why people get sick and we had to master all of those aspects. And once we did that, and they were getting consistent results, Now, it becomes a little bit easier because you just point to those results and people that want to, to accomplish that. They, they, they come to us. So it’s a lot easier now to, to find clients. Now the challenge is the fulfillment, the delivery. So Every person that we bring on the team, they are vetted in such a way where they have to have the same values. They have to have the same passion, right? They have to have the same work ethic. And that’s challenging. And so we’ve, we’ve, the fact that we are virtual has helped because we get to source talent from all over the world. And so we’re not limited. And so we’re able to get the best people from all across the globe. And because of that we’re able to fulfill and, and, and meet, the large growth that we’ve had.
Tom: 13:35
That’s really great. So I want to go back to kind of the combination of what you’re saying from going from physician to a health coach. Is there a, in, I’m sure there’s a lot of physicians that are listening to this podcast and wondering, like, I want to get into functional medicine. Like, is there a route that most will take, or is there a hybrid between traditional medicine and functional medicine that, that people can take advantage of?
Dr. King: 14:03
I guess it depends on what you define as a hybrid. So my definition of hybrid is having a foot in both ponds, right? It’s very difficult to do that because if you, whatever you don’t focus on, you don’t master. And so if you’re doing both, you’re not doing either way justice, right? If you’re in that insurance model. And you got to see patients every 15 minutes. It’s going to be very difficult to really spend the time to educate and things of that nature. So now what some physicians do is they stay in that model and then they hire a team. For the other model. So once they identify people that want to be more proactive, they just don’t want a pill, right? Then they refer them to their let’s call it health and wellness team to really guide them on how to take control over their health. So. Some physicians do that and that model works very well because they can focus on what they want to do and, and, and then have another team focus on what they do. So they’ll have a nutritionist, they’ll have a health coach, they’ll have all of that, right? The, the challenge with that is that they’re still stuck in a system that they don’t believe in. That’s the problem with that. Okay. Now you, then you can say, okay, well, I’ll hire a physician for that. And then I will be on this side of it. Right. And I’ll do the hybrid that way. Some doctors do that as well, but then you have the challenge of, now you despise this, this, it’s almost like you, your left arm, you despise and you love your right arm. When you go to the gym and work out, you’re like, I don’t want to do anything with this. I’m just going to work out this right arm because I love this arm. And so it’s, it’s just challenging now, but there’s physicians that do it. It’s just challenging for me. I left that, that model completely. I literally withdrew. I, I was I had privileges with about seven hospitals when I, when I walked away.’cause we had a large medical group and then we had contracts with, with a bunch of hospitals. I withdrew all of my privileges. cause I, I wanted to burn the ships. I didn’t want to have the temptation when things got hard financially, I didn’t want the temptation of going back into the hospital and thank God I did. Cause those days, where I was just like, Oh, let me just do a shift here or there because things got tight. I was, I remember I was Airbnb, about three rooms in my house, in my home, my kids were like, why are these strange people in our pool? It was rough. So I’m glad that I did that because it would have pulled me back. I I’m telling you, and then I, it was just, it would have slowed this practice down because I wouldn’t have focused on it. So. The fact that I have the knowledge of both sides, I use the knowledge all the time because I have people that come in, they’re on six, seven medications. They want to get off the medications, but they can’t just stop the medications, right? There’s, you have to have a knowledge of meds to be able to guide someone on how to get off of them because there’s a way that you have to do it depending on what med they’re on and what condition they have. And so I use that knowledge to be able to get people off of the medications. So I still use. My knowledge from both sides, but only focus if there’s someone that comes in and they just want me to be their doctor No, I I I don’t do it if they are here and they want to get here then yes, because now you want to be proactive and you want to improve and enhance your Every single person, I don’t care who you are, you can enhance your health. And if you don’t have a goal to enhance it, I’m not the right person for you.
Tom: 18:01
Nice!. That, that makes it really crystal clear as well. So thanks for, for sharing that. Now, I’m sure, and you alluded to this with your Airbnb experience as well. So there’s been surprises that have come up in terms of making that tradition, making that shift from traditional medicine into functional medicine, and obviously going from profit to heart led, what have been some other surprises or things that you’ve had to do either good or bad that have come up from making that shift to being more heart centered.
Dr. King: 18:33
The biggest surprise is the need for marketing, because who doesn’t wanna be healthier? Who doesn’t want a physician to listen to them? Who doesn’t want a physician to partner with them? Right. Who doesn’t want that? That’s a no brainer. Well, what I did not realize the surprise was, cause I thought, Oh, when I was a doctor, I just didn’t even have to market. I didn’t even have to, which I didn’t, but I didn’t realize the marketing that was going on behind the scenes, right? The insurance companies, they spend billions in marketing. The insurance companies. are the people that send patients to, to us, right? And so it’s also the hospital. I was a hospitalist. The hospital spends millions of dollars in marketing. And so there were big businesses that was doing all the marketing. All I had to do was show up and see the patient. The food industries, right? They spend billions to market. Well, how does the food industry market for a physician? Because the food industry is what’s causing a lot of the sickness. And so, these big corporations, they spend billions so that I have an endless supply of patients as long as I’m seeing them under the insurance model. Because if I’m seeing them under the insurance model, then I have 15 minutes to see each person, which conveniently, I only have time to write a prescription. So it feeds the pharmaceutical industry. You see, so I didn’t realize that all of that was going on behind the scenes when I left, but when I left and I didn’t have anyone to market for me, I didn’t have anyone sending me, right? So now I had to figure all the marketing piece out myself. And I’m a doctor. I went to Johns Hopkins. Like I shouldn’t have to, buy people dinner to to convince them to come see me. I am above that. I had to get over myself. I, I had to, it was a big hit to my ego because I’ve never had to do that. And so once I kind of humbled myself and said, Hey, let me go ahead and educate. Well, the only place, the only way that I can get them to come out, like what makes me different than anyone else, I had to do dinner talks. So I’m buying strangers dinners to get them to come out, to listen to what I have to say. Now, once they hear it, then it’s like, okay, this guy’s for real. This is, this is the real deal. And then I would get, I would get clients that way, but that’s how I had to start. And that was, I wasn’t expecting to have to do all that.
Tom: 21:30
Now, how about convincing people now that insurance does not actually pay for this and they have to pay out of pocket. How, how does that conversation evolve over time since he started the business?
Dr. King: 21:44
Yeah. So I think people are realizing more and more. That insurance is not helping them. And, and so it’s not as hard of a conversation as it used to be, because it used to be where, because we’ve been brainwashed that, Oh, if insurance doesn’t cover it, that means that I should not do it, not, I don’t want to do it, but if insurance doesn’t pay for it, that means the government does not approve, and that means I shouldn’t do it. That’s that was the mentality.
Tom: 22:15
Wow. That’s,
Dr. King: 22:17
Okay. So now it’s to a point where they’re realizing, and I’m gonna tell you, COVID had a lot to do with it. COVID really opened people’s eyes and say, Hey, the medical system ain’t got you. They don’t have your back. They can’t, the medical system is like, stay home. We can’t do anything for you. You got to protect yourself. You got to boost your immune system. You got to make sure you’re healthy. You got to get rid of these comorbid diseases, right? Wait a minute. You told me everything was fine and, and all I had to do was pay my little 5 copay. And as long as I had insurance, I was fine. Now you’re telling me I’m not fine. It opened a lot of people’s eyes. And so since that time, now people are saying, well, no one knew what the immune system was. Like, who knew what them, like, vitamin D, zinc, no one knew what that stuff did. Now everyone does because of COVID. So now it’s an easier conversation because now they know, well, I insurance let me down. The government let me down. I’m not really trying to go through that again. I need to figure out what I need to do to protect myself. So now it’s a whole different conversation.
Tom: 23:28
That’s fascinating. Didn’t realize that COVID obviously had some, obviously bad things that happened, but there were also some very good positive things that came out of it. And that sounds another one to put on the list of, of positives. So when things go South sometimes.
Dr. King: 23:44
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Tom: 23:46
Well, cool. Our time has come to an end. But any last words that you’d like to share with our audience about being a heartled business? And how get ahold of you for sure.
Dr. King: 23:56
Yeah. Yeah. So, my website is naplesvitality. com. My name is Dr. Linell King. You can just Google me. There’s no other Dr. Linell King. So that’s, that, that makes it easy. But yeah, yeah. If, if, you want to reach out and, and like I said, we help people virtually all over. So, Just, we have tons of educational content as well. As far as other businesses out there that are heart led, I guess what I would say is, find a good balance between the heart and the brain, right? Because this alone is not going to make the business successful. It will drive you. It will give you the fuel. It will give you the perseverance that you need. And that I feel like that’s where heart comes in. But get the necessary education, get the necessary coaching. I can’t stress that enough. Learn from people that have already made the mistake. You don’t have to make all these mistakes, on your own.
Tom: 25:03
That’s awesome. That’s really great. Great, great advice. So thank you for that very much. Thank you for being on the show. We’ll put all of your social media handles and the website in the show notes. So people can find that very easily down there in the show notes. And just a quick reminder to our listeners, please do what other kind and considerate listeners do and leave a rating and review for this podcast so that others can get, get ahold of it and see what’s, what we’re doing here and helping other heart led businesses, not just survive, but also thrive. So that’s been another episode of the heart led business show. Thank you so much, Dr. Linell King for being on here and have a great rest of your day.
Dr. King: 25:47
Thank you so much. You as well. You’ve been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jacobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.
