In this episode, Naomi Dicus takes us on a transformative journey through the heart of functional medicine, highlighting the crucial role of understanding your “why” in achieving holistic health. With a blend of humor and expertise, Naomi shares her inspiring transition from corporate finance to becoming a passionate advocate for women’s fertility and wellness. She delves into the challenges of navigating social media marketing, the power of a positive money mindset, and the importance of providing real value to clients. Through personal stories and professional insights, this episode inspires listeners to embrace a healthier lifestyle and make informed decisions about their well-being.
🎧Listen to the full episode and be inspired to transform your health journey today!
Key Takeaways from this Episode
- The importance of understanding your “why”
- The transformative power of functional medicine
- The role of nutrition and lifestyle in healing
- The history and pitfalls of the conventional medical system
- Simple, effective strategies for stress management
- The journey from corporate finance to heart-led healthcare entrepreneurship
- The struggle with social media algorithms and reaching the right audience
- Money mindset and the value exchange in healthcare
About the Guest
Naomi Dicus is a certified Functional Medicine Health Coach specializing in helping women conceive naturally. With over 20 years in corporate finance and a background in Business, Naomi transitioned to Functional Medicine after studying at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition and the School of Applied Functional Medicine. Based in Sausalito, CA, Naomi Dicus helps clients resolve chronic illness by holistically balancing lifestyle, stress, diet, and self-care.
Additional Resources
- Website: https://www.naomidicus.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blisspointhealth
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomidicus
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blisspointhealth/
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Explore the Dialogue’s Treasures: Unearth the insights within! Delve into the profound wisdom woven throughout our conversation.
Speaker: 0:01
Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, 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 Jackobs: 0:36
All right, hold on to your headphones, folks. We’re about to dive deep with the awesome Naomi Dicus, a functional medicine maestro, helping hopeful mamas to be naturally. So join us as we navigate the nitty gritty of nutrition, unravel the spaghetti of stress management and get clued in on chronic illness causes. This tech turned health coach is the queen bee of bee’s wellness, and she’s here to reveal all on the Heart Led Business Show. Welcome to the show, Naomi.
Naomi Dicus: 1:05
Thank you so much, Tom. It’s great to be here on your show.
Tom Jackobs: 1:09
Awesome. I’m really looking forward to our conversation today, especially after our first conversation earlier. But I always like to ask the guests, the The first question, which is what’s your definition of a heart led business?
Naomi Dicus: 1:22
Well, I think that it all comes down to the why, you know, what is the why behind it? What brings me here to help women, on their journey of their health, balancing their health and hormones. And this is what I always ask my potential clients to be that want to work with me as well is what is your why, what actually brings you here? And I think that when you’re coming from a place where your why is really coming from your heart, then, you know, you show up as your really, truly authentic self to help people with their core problems. I mean, there are, you know, hundreds of thousands of practitioners out there that are You know, trying to find probably the same group of women that I am targeting in my business. And I just, I definitely show up on a daily basis with a passion for wanting to help women get well, learn how to do better in their life so that they can stay well.
Tom Jackobs: 2:16
Yeah that’s so awesome because the why is so important in any business, especially a heart led business, because that To me anyway, that’s what really motivates people to make a change, make a difference in other people’s lives. I mean, that’s, it’s such an important piece of that. Where did you, like, where did that come from?
Naomi Dicus: 2:36
Well, I’ve always been really passionate my whole life about nutrition and just finding alternative methods for, you know, behind health, especially with my life. And when I had my child, and I think that, you know, just general frustration with the conventional medical system and just seeing how a lot really it really kind of started it within my family, seeing with other family members, how it just was not working for them and you know, doctors would prescribe a medication and that would lead to more medications down the road and more symptoms. And it just kind of turned into morphed into something else and they never really got well. And so when I discovered functional medicine, which was actually through nutrition school, it just completely resonated with me. Every fiber of my being, I am what is functional medicine I feel like, or sometimes I say functional medicine found me. And it’s really just been so transformative. And I just want to share that with the world because it is so magical. I mean, First of all, our bodies have the capacity to do so much healing on their own. When we simplify things in our, you know, connected systems within our body, then our body actually gives us a chance to heal on its own. So that’s really amazing. Also the healing power of food and nutrition, different lifestyle choices, you know, like sleep and staying hydrated, these all sound like basic things, but they are the fundamentals of of health really. And as you mentioned earlier, stress management, you know, it’s just, it’s such a big part of health is figuring out how to, you know, live a life day to day so that we’re not experiencing chronic stress and raising our cortisol levels every single day. You know, we have to, we have cortisol levels down. It’s a really good way of because otherwise it can really take a detrimental effect on our health and so many different chronic illnesses, especially around fertility, especially around balancing women’s hormones. So
Tom Jackobs: 4:37
Where do you think we went wrong as a society in terms of the medical approach? Wasn’t it Thomas Edison, that said, you know, the doctor of the future will use food as medicine and, you know, basically I’m really butchering this quote, but like get to the root cause of the problem. And that was what, in the 1800s or, early 1900s. Right.
Naomi Dicus: 4:59
I think that we definitely were following the proper alignment of health, you know, a lot better than we are now. Back in that time. And I mean, there’s many different Paths that I could go down to answer that question. And it’s such a good question. It’s such an important question. The easy answer might be the 1980s when the food industry decided that they would sell more and more if they took out the fat, you know, and created this kind of dieting lifestyle in the food industry. And so what happens when you take the fat out of food, you take out the flavor. And then, so in order to add flavor back in. They’re pumping processed foods full of sugar and full of you know, flavors and artificial coloring and different ways to kind of save money in the food industry. That’s a big part of it as well as I would say, you know, just the insurance model in the conventional health world. I think that is also a huge problem because, you know, these conventional doctors, most of the time it’s not necessarily technically their fault if you want to talk about faults, right? Because they’re given an allotted amount of time that’s covered by insurance. And it’s really not enough to get to the root of people’s actual issues. But I think that like I said, I could talk about this for hours and hours, more time than we have today. I’m very passionate about this subject, but I think the solution is that we start to approach health as more of a lifestyle. We need to start to look at our overall health from a day to day lifestyle input point of view.
Tom Jackobs: 6:40
Okay. So sitting on the couch, eating chips, watching TV, that would be a bad lifestyle choice.
Naomi Dicus: 6:47
Not that bad. There’s a lot of better alternatives. Yes, there’s a lot of better alternatives.
Tom Jackobs: 6:52
That was me in my thirties, like sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of ice cream usually at the end of the day and just getting so fat is not good.
Naomi Dicus: 7:01
So can we, like, you know, exchange your chips for some cold crops. They’re organic or limit that TV time instead to maybe like 20 minutes and then have you get up and go for a brisk walk, you know, in the middle of the day where you’re taking in sunlight naturally. You know, a lot of people think that, that good health is unattainable for them or it’s too expensive. They don’t have the money to, spend on, you know, all of this alternative healthcare, but it, the answers can be actually quite simple. So, that’s really the way that I try to approach my business, the content that I give out, as well as, you know, with my patients.
Tom Jackobs: 7:38
I mean, that’s really the key, right? It’s just to simplify it because, you know, so many people love to over complicate health and fitness, but it really, it’s just. What you eat and, you know, eat the right things and move a little bit more. It’s really that.
Naomi Dicus: 7:52
Yeah. And don’t let stress take over your life, which is so hard in our society these days. It’s so
Tom Jackobs: 7:59
hard. Yeah. And especially with our, you know, our primal brains that are wired to have that fight or flight when it comes to, you know, saber tooth tigers coming after us. But I don’t think I haven’t seen a tiger on
Naomi Dicus: 8:10
right?
Tom Jackobs: 8:10
the street
Naomi Dicus: 8:11
Right.
Tom Jackobs: 8:12
Yeah.
Naomi Dicus: 8:12
Our brain doesn’t know the difference, right? So we have to learn how to do things, techniques to tell our body that we’re okay, that we’re not in danger and that we’re actually going, we’re going to be fine. So can I give you a little tip on cortisol really quick? Just like a really Free easy tip. So if you’re at work or you had a fight with your partner or your kids are stressing you out, you feel your stress levels going up. So cortisol is rising. And what you want to do with cortisol is tell your body that it’s okay, but you need to move. You need to move your body. So you either get up, go out for a walk or a run. If you can’t get up, say you’re on a meeting or something for work, you just put your camera on pause. Say that you have to go off camera for a moment. You can even do squats in place to lower your cortisol.
Tom Jackobs: 9:00
Really?
Naomi Dicus: 9:00
And then while you’re doing those squats, you want to scan your eyes. To the left and to the right as you’re moving your body, which actually signals your brain that everything’s okay. You’re being vigilant. You’re looking out for the saber tooth tiger and it’s, everything’s going to be fine. You know, drink some water, go for a quick walk. With no sunglasses on, we’ve got some really great serotonin receptors in our eyes, that also helps calm you down. So just easy tip.
Tom Jackobs: 9:29
Great. I’m going to do that right now. No, I’m not stressed. So not talking to
Naomi Dicus: 9:33
Let’s do some squats while we talk.
Tom Jackobs: 9:34
Yeah. Right. If I had my desk up, yeah, we can definitely do that. So naomi what inspired you to start your heartled business?
Naomi Dicus: 9:41
Well, you know, when I was studying functional medicine, it was actually a requirement to be practicing, to see, be seeing patients while I was studying in school. So I had a group of about five to 10 clients at different times, in my six month program. And I saw men and women dealing with all types of chronic illnesses. But two of my patients were women and as a result of our six month work together, just of balancing their health. And helping them with stress management two of them got pregnant naturally. And these were women who actually did want to conceive. One of them had come to me after having just had a miscarriage. The other one had tried for, I think about five to seven years. They had one child together. They had tried for a while and she was 43. She didn’t think she could get pregnant again. She called me up, you know, a few months after our. Stopped and said, you’ll never believe it. I’m pregnant. So these two little babies that exist in the world really did inspire me to go into helping women conceive naturally. And You know, it’s just, it’s such a passion of mine. It’s fertility is such a sensitive subject. And I think so many women struggle, in the conventional world, these days with fertility and women that are, you know, spending tens of thousands of dollars going through fertility treatments that are very invasive. And oftentimes they don’t, feel listened to, they don’t feel heard, and they don’t really even know how to prepare for these you know, these treatments. So, this is something that I feel very passionate about, and I just want to help the masses, as many women as I possibly can, because, it’s getting pregnant, things like losing weight, these should be a side effect of good health.
Tom Jackobs: 11:28
Yeah. Well that, I mean, that’s an indicator of good health is when your body is functioning properly and that fertility, weight loss, all of that. Yeah. Elimination. Well stuff. So. Let’s talk about the business side of it. So you’ve gone through school, you have your functional medicine practitioner, how’d you start the business? Like, what was that like for you?
Naomi Dicus: 11:49
Ooh, well, I’m still doing it. It’s I feel like I’m learning so many new things every single day. And I actually came from a background of working in corporate finance. I have a business degree. So I’ve started successfully to other companies in my life, in my twenties and thirties and, in completely different industries. But you know, very successfully. And so I have a bit of a baseline and a personality that follows an entrepreneur type. you know, personality. That’s a very comfortable world for me. But starting this business in healthcare, especially with the online world, and you really, I feel like you really can’t just, open a business anymore and not involve it into the online world. You know, business platform, because it’s just after COVID. This is where people feel comfortable. They feel comfortable in their living room. They want to get health tips and know what to do at home and in the comfort of their own home. And I also do see patients in person, but, I have had to learn so many different platforms and different areas of technology and algorithms behind social media. And it’s definitely been challenging. I definitely feel like there’s a certain part that takes away from my creativity and just wanting to show up for people to help people. Which is ultimately what is, you know, my heart led. side of this business. And I also feel like it’s very important for an individual to know how to do every aspect of the business from a technology point of view, because then down the line, when you are bringing in, you know, your desired amount of monthly income, annual income, yes, you can hire out. for other people to help you, but you want to know how to do those things from the basic level so that A, if someone were to ever get sick or ghost you or drop off the face of the earth, then you would know how to deal, you know, with your own. stuff, handle your own platforms, but also just so that you have the basic knowledge. Like, how do you start a website? How do you send out email sequences and nurture your email groups? These are all just very important things and business today requires so much of us, but it is very important for us to have the basic knowledge of that. As we’re starting a business and working through our business.
Tom Jackobs: 14:14
Wait, which part of the business side of your business was the biggest struggle for you?
Naomi Dicus: 14:19
was the biggest struggle and continues to be the biggest struggle, for me is the Facebook and Instagram algorithms. I still, After being at this for, you know, daily, I put out my best content, everything in my brain. I put this out on beautiful backgrounds and photos and, you know, really pretty reels. I do love creating content because it gives me a chance to share my knowledge with the world and offer it for free, really. You can follow me on Instagram is where I’m mostly present. And you can gain so much knowledge to be able to even just, you know, Handle your health on your own before you even start working with me. But getting in front of the right audience has been the ongoing struggle and it’s, I still don’t understand necessarily how it works. And I don’t feel like I’m exactly where I want to be either. So, I definitely through everything that I’ve been putting out and publishing regularly on a daily basis, I have a lot of other practitioners that follow me, and I’m really glad that I can offer them good information and content as well. But it really is my passion to get in front of the right audience of women who are trying to get pregnant women who are struggling with infertility or undergoing fertility treatments to, you know, maximize their chances. So I, it’s still, it’s a constant struggle, still working on it.
Tom Jackobs: 15:44
Well, that’s interesting that struggle, I think a lot of practitioners will resonate with that as well. It kills me too, like to see like a cat video, get a million views and my content though. It’s just like, perfect. Got 42. What? In my videos and maybe you should get a cat in your videos as well or something.
Naomi Dicus: 16:05
Or like a few kittens. If I had kittens crawling all over me, people might pay attention to you know, the different herbs and roots to to take to balance your estrogen.
Tom Jackobs: 16:14
What about the money side? Is, has there ever been like where you’ve struggled with asking people for money or just being okay with charging?
Naomi Dicus: 16:23
Absolutely. That money is a constant struggle. And I think that every individual deals with, you know, what is their worth? What is their value? What can they ask for? What are they comfortable asking for? And really I’ve actually. With every single one of my patients, I’ve dealt with money mindset with them as well, because surprisingly, it definitely affects your health. Money is a huge part of your baseline of health, and stress and, you know, etc. So, one of the tools that I use religiously, and I also use with my clients regularly, is EFT tapping. Are you familiar with that?
Tom Jackobs: 17:03
I’ve seen it years ago. Right. Yeah.
Naomi Dicus: 17:06
Yeah. So it’s basically tapping at different acupressure points in the body and you know, the upper quadrant of the body and it, as you’re kind of saying a certain script which I create sometimes, or I have, you know, like a basis of a few money scripts with my clients. And then they, so I say the phrase and they repeat after me while we’re tapping at various acupressure points. It actually fundamentally changes your feeling about the issue that you’re tapping on. So, you know, using it on a regular basis and over time you get a lot more confident. Like, you know, what to charge for your services. It really comes down to knowing your value and just feeling confident that you are providing a service to people that’s really helping them. That’s changing their life. It’s an exchange of energy, right? So I’m taking my knowledge of medicine and your body ultimately share teaching that to you, teaching you how to have the, your optimal health. And in exchange, you pay me money for it. It’s an energy exchange. So without one, the other will cause an imbalance and it is very important. So EFT tapping is something I use on myself as well, almost daily. Not only for money mindset, but around a lot of other, it’s just psychological beliefs. And it’s very helpful in the beginning stages of starting a business, especially if you are a heart led business owner, because you want to give away everything you have for free. You just want to like help people, right? And you want to see people have these really positive experiences and change their life. But you don’t want to cause an imbalance. And when people get things for free, they don’t necessarily put very much time or effort into making a change. So, people have to pay a certain amount of money in order to value the information that they’re getting back. See this money is an exchange of energy. And so, it’s not necessarily even doing a service to all of the people out there that need your help. If you’re giving away everything for free.
Tom Jackobs: 19:22
Yeah. Well, it’s not sustainable, right?
Naomi Dicus: 19:24
It’s not sustainable for anyone for either party. Yeah,
Tom Jackobs: 19:28
And if you’re not taking care of yourself, there’s no way that you can take care of other people. And especially if you’re not able to afford rent and food, you’re going to have to close your business. And then, well, then nobody’s being helped at that point.
Naomi Dicus: 19:42
That’s
Tom Jackobs: 19:42
true. Do you have any opinion on why a lot of heart led business owners struggle with that in terms of that mentality that it’s not okay to charge or it’s not okay to make money and it’s just like they struggle with that whole money aspect or even making a profit in their business?
Naomi Dicus: 20:01
Yeah. I mean, I think that a lot of people are. So maybe thinking about the money in their business in the wrong way because it has to start from your, the way you value yourself ultimately. And then the next step is the way you value what you do. How do you see what you’re doing in your business is bringing to the world. You know, how do you value that? And then another way to think about it, if people are struggling business owners are struggling with this, they can put themselves in the point of view of the client and think to themselves, if I was a client about to hire myself, right? And the services that I’m providing, wouldn’t I pay for that? Nobody would expect to receive that service for free. And if it was out there for free, then the potential client is thinking, well, there has to be something wrong with it, right? It’s not good. If it’s, if there’s no price to it, or if it’s not a high enough price, then it’s not valuable. And so why would I put my time and energy into making this change? So, I think it really needs to start from that point. And then, you know, you the service that you’re providing as a business and as a leader to people is very great. And all of these people, it’s going to change their life. And there’s a cost to that. I think it’s a pretty standard expectation that there is a cost associated with.
Tom Jackobs: 21:26
Yeah. I mean, the reality too, is that, you know, they’re probably going to be spending less overall of their lifetime.
Naomi Dicus: 21:34
Absolutely. Yes.
Tom Jackobs: 21:35
Even with insurance paying, you know, a good portion of it, although probably not so much anymore, you know, like even if they’re paying 70 percent of it, you’re still, you know, if you’re spending, you know, 1, 000 a month on medication. You’re still, you know, your insurance might pay 700 of that, but you’re still paying 300 of it. I mean, get off the medication if you can, you know, it’s, and get to the healthy life.
Naomi Dicus: 21:56
And if you go to the doctor and you’re paying your copay or that certain percentage or your deductible, right, in order to have that visit, plus the medication and all of those things, is your problem actually getting solved? Nine times out of ten, I can say this with confidence, it’s not. It’s actually probably even less than that. It’s very rare that your issue is going to get solved. But then I have another question that even goes deeper into that is, are you going to understand after you leave that doctor’s office, that doctor’s appointment, what’s actually wrong with you? And would you know how to correct that on your own? Absolutely not.
Tom Jackobs: 22:32
Not.
Naomi Dicus: 22:32
But that’s what we do in functional medicine. We, you know, it’s an educational experience. And in a lot of ways, after doing my program with me, people walk away with a master’s degree in their health. They walk away with the knowledge of their own body that they hold onto for the rest of their life. You know? So it’s, I mean, it sounds kind of hokey, but it really is an investment. It’s an investment.
Tom Jackobs: 22:58
100 Percent. And the one that pays dividends over and over again.
Naomi Dicus: 23:01
Absolutely. And when you’re talking about fertility, it’s, you’re actually paying dividends two generations down the line because the health and the nutrition that you work on within your own body, and then you get pregnant affects your child, and if that child is female, affects their children. Two generations.
Tom Jackobs: 23:22
Wow. Yeah.
Naomi Dicus: 23:23
Wild.
Tom Jackobs: 23:23
Well, that should be evidence enough for people to start taking care of themselves, right now. Awesome.
Naomi Dicus: 23:30
Yeah. And I have a lot of you know, content that I give out that helps people do that. Like, what can you do today? Like there are little things that can have exponential effects on your health.
Tom Jackobs: 23:41
Well, just the squatting and looking left and right. I think that, that tip alone is gold and for a lot of people just lower those cortisol levels, lower that stress, get back into the game and be fresh again. That’s awesome.
Naomi Dicus: 23:54
Just being aware, like, wow, I bet my stress is through the roof right now. I need to move my body. I need to do something to get out of this situation.
Tom Jackobs: 24:03
If only I knew that years ago, working in corporate, right?
Naomi Dicus: 24:06
We both would probably have saved a lot of time and
Tom Jackobs: 24:09
Yeah. money and copays. Right.
Naomi Dicus: 24:11
Yeah, money and good things. Exactly.
Tom Jackobs: 24:13
Well, Naomi, how can people learn more about your business, what you’re doing and potentially work with you?
Naomi Dicus: 24:19
A great way to, is to go directly to my website. I have a link to all of the content that I put out on Instagram directly on the website, as well as the first page has a spot to make a schedule, a 20 minute consultation with me. That’s free. So we would meet and directly discuss like what’s going on in your body. What is your why that’s bringing you here? Right? And just figure out if it would be a good fit to work together in one of my programs. I offer group programs as well as one on one and also a mix of the two.
Tom Jackobs: 24:52
Okay. Very cool. Thanks. Thanks for sharing that. And also thanks for sharing your time with us today and your wisdom and giving us all sorts of good advice, especially for those heart led business owners that might be struggling a little bit right now. I think your advice is. Definitely going to help a lot of people. So thank you for coming on the show today.
Naomi Dicus: 25:10
Thank you so much, Tom. And thank you for actually hosting this heart led business platform because it’s a beautiful thing and we should all be coming from, you know, this really pure, and wonderful point of view.
Tom Jackobs: 25:23
And not be afraid to have a profit at the same time. Awesome.
Naomi Dicus: 25:27
Yeah. The two can very much go hand in hand, successfully being heartled as well as making, you know, good money and living the life you want
Tom Jackobs: 25:36
Yes. Awesome. So thank you again, and thank you listeners for watching the show and listening to the show. We really do appreciate it. Make sure you’re checking out what Naomi is doing by clicking on those links that we’re going to put down in the show notes. We’ll link all of her social media as well as all the information about how to get in contact with her as well. I know that a lot of our guests really enjoy when they hear from the listeners on the show.
Speaker: 26:03
You’ve been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.
