Profit Over People in the Wellness World? Not on Andrea Beaman’s Watch

Michelle Leotta: Welcome to the Health Coach Power Community Podcast. I'm Michelle Leotta, an ex corporate girl turned certified health coach with over 15 years of experience growing a successful online practice. I started out with no idea what I was getting into and learned a lot of lessons along the way that have given me the freedom to do the work I love and raised two boys as a single mom. I created a health coach power community over a decade ago to make it easier for health coaches to build a career they love and make the world a better place.

Hey, health coaches, we have to talk. The wellness industry is worth trillions. So every time that we or our clients buy that $70 weighted best, or a fancy adaptogen latte, or even another health coach certification, someone is cashing in. So here's the question. How much are we out here improving health and happiness, and how much are we fueling the industry's bottom line?

In this episode, I'm joined by my friend Andrea Beaman, and we're gonna talk about why we really got into this work. I wanna bring the heart back into a field that sometimes puts profit over people. So if that resonates and you want to help, uh, reconnect yourself to your mission as a coach, I've got some simple journaling prompts to help you find that clarity and get grounded.

Text the word MISSION to me and I'll send you those journal prompts. It's really easy to text. Just go to HealthCoachPower.com/Text and send me the single word MISSION. And with that, let's get into the episode.

Andrea is fabulous, a real veteran of the health coaching world. I would say. She paved the way for the rest of us. I remember seeing her on stage when I was a student at IIN. And years later we hosted a radio show together, now we're practically neighbors. You're infer treat. Well, it is great to see you again, my friend.

Andrea Beaman: Oh, it's always a pleasure to see you, Michelle.

Michelle Leotta: I'm so glad that you could join me. I know you've been on various, you know, we've done all kinds of podcasts and shows together, and it is always a great time. So all my listeners are in for a treat. Thanks again.

Andrea Beaman: Well, now it has to be good. You're hyping it up.

Michelle Leotta: I know, right? Well, that's what I'm here for. I'm your hype woman. Yeah. I'll record the intro to this later, but I'm sure I will already have hyped you up tremendously, and I just wanna let everyone know, and you know, our new listeners, especially this podcast, is usually about business and marketing for health coaches. But damn, I like to remember why we're here and why we do this work in the first place. It's not about funnels and algorithms. That's not why we get outta bed. So like the heart of health coaching, and I was thinking, I've been in this industry for a hundred years, which means you've been in the health coaching world for what, like 200 years now?

Andrea Beaman: At least since the Dark Ages.

Michelle Leotta: Yeah, so I think this is important because we have a lot of new health coaches just graduating the scene has changed a bit in the past 100 or 200 years. So let's just start, you know, back in the dark ages. I know you got into health coaching because of your own health journey, and I've heard this, but can you tell all our listeners a little bit about how you wound up here?

Andrea Beaman: Well, it's a great story.

Michelle Leotta: Sure, it is.

Andrea Beaman: So, uh, it actually precedes my own illness, right? My initial journey, I had thyroid disease, right, which a lot of people know who know me, but they don't know the seed that was planted in me, which happened five years prior.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, and we went the traditional route that you do, you know, the chemotherapy, the radiation, all that stuff. And uh, my dad had read an article about this, Dr. Hugh Faulkner, that had healed himself from pancreatic cancer of all things using diet. Like his colleague said, listen buddy, you got like three months, six months maximum.

And he is like, I'm gonna try something else outside of my medical expertise. So he found Macrobiotics, and he, um, he lived 10 years beyond his six-month diagnosis. So my dad read that article, and he said, Hey, let's try this with your mom. Let's try this, you know, weird food. So we did, you know, she had already been through radiation and chemotherapy and all that stuff, and we started to incorporate this.

Like Whole Foods, natural foods. There was like nothing out of a box except for the rice, right? Yes. But after that, it was all like, like everything you would get from a farm, basically. And we noticed that my mother's energy shifted, right? So she had, from all the radiation and the chemo, she had like no hair and gray lips and gray skin.

And then we started feeding her this food, and she got a little color back in her cheeks and her eyes perked up a little bit, and she could sit up in the bed. So, it wasn't enough to bring her back from the brink of those very dangerous treatments that she had gone through, but. It was enough to plant in me the seed that if anything happens, I'm gonna try food first.

I'll try food first before doing anything radical to my body, like destroy it with radiation. So, when I got diagnosed with my big goiter and thyroid disease, the doctor had said, you need radioactive iodine to destroy that thyroid. And I was like, I don't need radioactive anything. I'm not taking radioactive goodbye to that. So let me see. Um. Just so people could get a little, a little look. So, see my large goiter?

Michelle Leotta: Yes.

Andrea Beaman: Yeah. So they said, you know, you can't heal that thing with diet and lifestyle. That's nonsense. That's crazy. And so I changed literally my diet and my lifestyle. Stopped drinking coffee all day long. Stopped hanging out and partying all night long.

Right. And I started to eat like this weird food, and my goiter kept shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. My thyroid levels became normal, and I've been shouting it from the rooftops ever since. And it's funny, um, my nephew, who's 20 years old, uh, he just contacted me and he's like, Aunt Fanny, I'm at, you know, he is, he's doing some, um, some work in Maine up in the, in the parks.

And he said. I'm with this guy, and this guy says, you know, there's no way that you could heal with food. There's no way. And so I sent him the pictures of the before and after, like one of today and one of like 30 years ago, and he was like, damn, right. So it's nice to have proof of healing. But I don't think that we, when you know it, you don't need the proof.

You just know it. You follow that direction, and you're like, okay, like what you talked about, like how do we get into this in the first place? So for me, it was that initial calling, like, I can heal this thing naturally. I don't care what. Three doctors said to me, it wasn't just the one, it was three doctors over a two-year period.

Michelle Leotta: I bet.

Andrea Beaman: Oh my God. They were all like, you can't do this. You can't do that. You can't do that. You know, you're crazy. Uh, but I understand it because that's their own programming. That's what they've been taught in medical school. And medical school is great for some things, but when it comes to healing the body and preventing disease, it's, they're so lost and confused, it's crazy.

Um, you know, like they're great at putting you back together. If you get broken to pieces, you fall down a mountain, you know? Right. Or you get into a ski accident or a car accident, you go right to the hospital, they put you back together, that's where they excel. But when it comes to healing disease, I think that they're literally in the dark ages, you know?

And I think that, um, part of that is because there is another stream of consciousness that has permeated the medical industry. And the main focus is on how to make the most money. Can we get people into this system? And it's a revolving door system that keeps them sick and tired and needing more medication, and then a surgery and more medication.

No matter, we'll get 'em for life. That's what we'll do. We'll get 'em for life. Uh, so as far as why, how I got in, I got in because of, uh, sickness, like how a lot of people get into health and wellness. But I stayed in because there's some truths that need to be shared with the rest of the population.

Michelle Leotta: And did you ever think of like, maybe I should become a doctor? Like, how did you get into health coaching specifically, is what I was wondering.

Andrea Beaman: Oh, it's funny. My dad, when he was still alive, when I was first starting this, he said, Anne, you know, you should really become a doctor. He said, uh, I'd be like, oh, this is good for this. And I was reading all these books on alternative medicine and Chinese medicine and all the old stuff, and he's like, you should really think about becoming a doctor, because doctors are respected and doctors have validation of their career.

Yeah, right. They're validated by the AMA and all that stuff. And I said, no. I said, I had no desire. I told my dad, I said, I don't have the desire to become a doctor because they couldn't help me. My desire lies elsewhere. And for me, it was, I was drawn back toward ancient medicine, like ancient healing medicine, like, uh, traditional Chinese medicine, classical Chinese medicine, and Ayurvedic medicine.

Like that stuff spoke to me because it hasn't, hadn't been corrupted yet. Right. It's old medicine that has not been corrupted by the powers that be to just keep making money, money, money, money, money. Regardless of the, um, the outcomes, right?

Michelle Leotta: Those things. Uh, I mean, I suppose there's books and there are some things you can buy related to ancient medicine, but it certainly hasn't been monetized the way that, I don't know, like turned into a whole 30 trademark, registered, copyrighted, you know, system, right? Basically, the old stuff written down in a few places.

Andrea Beaman: It's old stuff. I mean, you know, they teach it in acupuncture school and Ayurvedic traditions, but it's old stuff. And when you look at it, the old stuff that they were recommending was the herbs and the foods that you have access to, lifestyle. In Ayurvedi, the yoga principles, right? Like, like they had you literally move your body in a specific way to energize and open your energy systems. Same thing with the TCM and with Tai Chi and INE and Qigong, right? All of these are movement exercises to literally get your energetic body moving so it functions properly.

Because I personally believe that the human body is perfectly designed and we're designed to be happy and healthy and vibrant for the time that we're inhabiting it, right? Not decrepit and rolling down the street in a wheelchair because you lost access to your legs because they diabetes. That's what I believe.

So if people want this type of medicine, they have to actually put it to use. I just had, I'm trying to get a C-S-A, Community Supported Agriculture, started on this side of the river, on my side of the river.

Michelle Leotta: I'm on the other side. If anyone was wondering, Andrea and I live; we could throw a rock at each other's house, but there's just a couple miles of water in between.
Andrea Beaman: It's true, it's true. So I'm trying to get a CSA started on this side of the river, and I'm trying to engage the community leaser of this apartment complex that I live in, and she's the. Like, but who's gonna cook? Wow. She said, who's gonna, who's gonna cook for themselves if we, if they get all this food, who are they gonna actually cook?

And I said that, that's really, it's very insightful because most people are not cooking. When I say most, I mean like the regular population. They're not

Michelle Leotta: Normal people, not us Health coaches, normal people. I like to remind everyone we are not normal.

Andrea Beaman: No, we're the outliers. Yeah, we're totally the outliers. We cook. We care for ourselves. We exercise, we meditate. We do the things to help the body and the mind, and the spirit feel good.

Michelle Leotta: Well, I hope you get that CSA going over there and teach somebody to cook. I mean, you're right. We are not normal. And even though we just made that blanket statement about like all of US health coaches and we're outliers more and more, I feel like there's this wide range of health coaches because there are more and more schools.

So there's more and more backgrounds that people are coming from in ways that they're getting certified and what they're learning. So we've got like some health coaches are all about a certain dietary theory, you know, I'm a primal coach or I'm a plant-based.

A whole food plant-based coach or something like that. Uh, we got like the functional medicine peeps. We've got, um, some that are like super duper into the motivational interviewing and they've like really studied that stuff. The coaching skills. Now, of course, you're known more for this ancient medicine.

What do you think like, do you think all of these different coaching styles can all live together? Do you think some are at odds with each other, and does ancient medicine work with all of them? That is really my question.

Andrea Beaman: Oh, well, I think that there is a place for all of the different types of medicines, right?

Just like I said that there's a time and a place for the hospital, and people will be drawn to specific types of healing modalities at certain times in their life. So somebody may be drawn to Ayurvedic, somebody may be drawn to paleo, somebody may be drawn to AIP, somebody may be drawn to gluten-free.

Somebody may be drawn to life coaching, right? And I think that when we start to tap into, well, this is what I need to learn at this time right now in my life, without any judgment, without any, oh, I should coulda, would've done that, right? All the, all the shoulda, woulda, coulda world.

But, I think that when you get called in a specific direction, whatever it is. Like for me, in the beginning it was Macrobiotics and Chinese medicine, and then of course it changed. It transformed over time. Then I was like, well, let me try this paleo thing, right? And then, right. And let me try this keto thing and let me try this. And then, for me personally, after 30 years doing this, it swung back around to ancient medicine.

Like, literally swung right back there ,and I was like, oh, this is for me, uh, what makes the most sense? Right? I'm literally living on this planet. I'm connected to the cycles and the seasons. My system is set up for this planet. Right.

Michelle Leotta: It's amazing, right? Like who would've thunk?

Andrea Beaman: Yes. Like, even in the ancient texts, they would say that man is a smaller version of the earth and the entire universe. And when I say, man, you know, it includes us fabulous women, women, we are women. So I think that there is a time and a place, and whenever somebody is open to learning something, they'll be exactly where they're supposed to be at that time until they're done with it. And then they're like, I am done with this, whatever it is, vegan, keto, this one, that one life.

I even have, um, a friend of mine who is a, uh, a marketing master, like she's like a marketing master, and she's been doing marketing for 30 years. She told me the other day, she goes, I'm done with marketing.

Michelle Leotta: Yes. There's different seasons in life you go through. Yes. A phase here, phase there. Maybe it's a 30-year phase, but still, it makes a lot of sense to me.

And my, my first foray into any of this was also macrobiotics, weirdly, 'cause a lot of people have never even heard of it. But that was my start as well, and I felt like. The one thing I've learned through all these years of like trying stuff, like you said, I had my vegan era, I had my paleo era is you pick stuff up, you know, maybe there's one practice or one habit that really stays with you years, decades later that you learned when you were like, you know, making all that rice on the macrobiotic diet and you know, it kind of, it, it's kinda like your resume, you know, you end up with a job that takes bits and pieces of stuff that you've learned along the way.

You know, look, somehow it all weaves together. So, like maybe for all our newer coaches, just know whatever you're doing now is probably gonna change. You know, whatever you're thinking now, whatever you think is the best or the worst, like having that open mind is gonna allow you to like bring together the best teachings from anything that you might study.

Andrea Beaman: I agree. And when I was first studying Macrobiotics at the Kushi Institute in Massachusetts. There was a teacher, his name was Mark Van Callenburg, and he said to me one night, we were having argument about food and all that stuff, and he said to me, he goes, all disease is spiritual sickness. I was like, ah, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

He's like, you know, this heart attacks the heart, and this is, you get cancer from this, and all this stuff. And I think it was like 20 years after that statement, I was like, wow, Mark was so right. All disease caused no spiritual sickness, like a disconnect from, um, connection, so to speak. And that to me was a great mind-opening experience that it's not just food, right?

Because I thought for 20 years or 15 years, food is the answer. And food you could do this and herbs and this, right? But it opened up a whole new world that we can transmute a lot of the food, and we can transmute a lot of the chaos when we are grounded and we are connected, so to speak. Right? Because you know, when you're, when you're grounded, you're literally getting a better, uh, what's it called? Like remember the, the, the little rabbit ears on the television?

Michelle Leotta: Oh.

Andrea Beaman: Right.

Michelle Leotta: You can't think of words anymore, Andrea. A signal.

Andrea Beaman: A signal, yes. So when I was growing up in the seventies and the eighties, we actually had those little rabbit ears on the television.

Yes. And you'd have to like move them around a little bit so that you could get your signal right. You would literally get your signal. And I feel like when we are grounded, when our humanness is grounded and steady, and connected. We get a better signal.

Michelle Leotta: I agree with you. And I remember the bunny ears and maybe somebody's dad was up on the roof trying to put those bunny ears up higher to get the better signal.

Get the city's TV shows. That's so funny. Now, I bet when you're like, you know, working with clients, like some clients might be open to hearing about that, but I bet most normal people don't wanna hear anything about their bunny ear antennas being grounded. None of that business, they just wanna maybe dip into the idea that food is medicine. Like you kind of gotta lead with the thing that is most accessible.

Andrea Beaman: 100%. If they're living in a physical body, I give them a menu of foods that literally connect to their physical body. Well, like if I were to lead with, we have to get your signal clear. I'd have no clients..

Michelle Leotta: Right, sometimes I bet they get there towards the end, though. Don't you see a shift?

Andrea Beaman: They do. Yeah, they do. Over time.

Michelle Leotta: Alright, well, tell us then, when we're operating through this ancient medicine lens, and that's an amalgamation of Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine, some of the others that you mentioned earlier, what are some of those main human body symptoms or areas of health to look at through that lens?

Like, what are the most important things that are your like go-tos for most of your clients?

Andrea Beaman: Well, I mean, first, you know, we have to figure out which organ system is having struggling the most. So your whole body is connected. This is not, uh, compartmentalized. The way that Western medicine, the whole body is connected.

Everything is connected to everything. They're all talking to each other. All the organ systems have like little personalities. So if I'm talking to a client. They are struggling with fear, excessive fear, a lot of fear, right? This is an indicator that the kidneys are not functioning well because, in ancient medicine, the kidneys house both courage and fear, right?

So like the heart houses anxiety and joy, right? So when the heart is not functioning as optimally as it could be, there could be lots of blips of anxiety going on. As opposed to a joyful, when the heart is functioning really at capacity, there's this joy that is coming from that system. So each of the organ systems speak literally.

So if somebody comes to me, and like I said, they have excessive fear. Uh, they're afraid of everything. They're afraid of this, they're afraid of that, afraid of this. I know that I am first and foremost focusing on nourishing that kidney element. So to nourish the kidney element, we're talking bone stocks, we're talking proteins, beans, meats, uh, you know, like all of the things, 'cause the kidneys are physically responsible for the water-soluble proteins.

Right? And if they're not getting nourished properly, then they will speak. I can't digest this, I can't process that. I can't get rid of this. And there's gonna be a buildup in the system. And like, if we look around, oh, another good one. Chronic worry. Right. So chronic worry lives in the spleen, stomach, and pancreas.

When you're worried about everything or if you're ruminating, thoughts are ruminating. Oh God, they worry, worry. This is different than fear, right? Fear is afraid of this. Afraid of that. Afraid of worry is this is gonna happen. This is, that's, oh gosh.

Michelle Leotta: What is this? What if that?

Andrea Beaman: Yes, they're ruminating. When the stomach, spleen, pancreas is outta balance, you're gonna get that chronic worry. That chronic rumination.

When the stomach, spleen, pancreas is balanced and happy and healthy, you're gonna get compassion. Compassion is living there. And if we look at Americans, right, their chronic worriers because they're damaging their stomach, spleen, pancreas by overeating the sweet flavor, right? This is, so each of the organ systems not only have a personality, they're each nourished or harmed by a specific flavor.

o that sweet flavor nourishes the stomach, spleen, pancreas, and America is addicted to sugar. It's a weird little bit chronic worriers, right? So, you know, all of the organ systems talk, and when I'm sitting with someone, one of their organ systems generally is speaking louder than the others.

So that's where I start. So I'd like create a menu that is kidney forward or stomach forward or liver forward or heart forward, meaning I'm nourishing that organ system first. Just trying to get the whole system in balance, but focusing on those specific organs first.

Michelle Leotta: Right as you were talking, I was like, Oh, I could see how this would help you navigate.

Where do I go with this client? Where do we even begin? That's so interesting. And so that sounds to me a lot like when you go for acupuncture.

Andrea Beaman: Oh, yeah.

Michelle Leotta: They're doing a similar thing.

Andrea Beaman: Yeah. And they're literally putting little antennas in you.

Michelle Leotta: That's so interesting. And I don't think any of this is being taught in any health coaching school I've heard anyone graduating from recently.

Andrea Beaman: No, I learned this on my own and by, uh, self-study and then studying deeper with practitioners because that really called to me, you know, that was making so much sense to me in my own life and with clients. It just was like, I was like, boop, you know, when something really connects with you on a deeper level.

That to me was like, wow, okay. This is, for now, or this is how I'm navigating the physical body on this experience called Earth in a human flesh suit

Michelle Leotta: Hurdling through space. Right?

Andrea Beaman: That's right. Yeah, that's right.

Michelle Leotta: I love that. So hopefully that opens our listeners' minds a little bit about other ways of thinking of the body of symptoms, um, or even just of a pathway that you might take with a client, you know, it doesn't all have to start with eating more dark, leafy greens or drinking more water.

Andrea Beaman: That's right. You know, like everybody thinks about, or at least, I don't know if they still think about like kale as the super food of the, you know, like every couple of years. Or every decade there's another super food that is marketed to the masses, right?

So in the 1980s, broccoli and cauliflower were marketed to the masses as like the cancer prevention. Everybody was eating broccoli and cauliflower, right? And then you come up, and then blueberries had their time, right? Their time in the sun, and then dates, right? So you have all of these foods that are promoted and marketed to the masses because there's an industry behind it, right?

And I understand that blueberries and kale are amazing, but maybe they're not good all year long or for all people or for all conditions, but I can guarantee you this much. If you get somebody off junk food and onto real food, broccoli and kale and blueberries, right? And some proteins in there, uh, they're gonna have a shift in their physical body's reaction. I think that all of those limited diets have benefit because they get you off junk food.

Michelle Leotta: Yes. That's like, I think one thing that. Every single one of the diets we've mentioned so far today, like it doesn't really matter to me. Which one? It doesn't matter if you do it exactly right. Oh, you're vegan, but you like to eat meat every now and then.

Fine. You know, I don't care. As long as it's not coming out of frozen aisle or McDonald's or something like that, everyone starts to feel better. That's amazing. It's so simple. I don't even, I don't even know why we have to keep saying it. It's, it's so obvious

Andrea Beaman:. Well, it's obvious because we're in circles that talk about it. But if you're in the regular land, right? Regular people land, and you're watching regular TV and you're listening to regular news, you are getting bombarded with advertisements that are telling you, eat this food, uh, go to this fast food place. This is on sale. You get a Happy Meal. And also in between all of those advertisements for this gigantic food industry.

Right next to it are advertisements for the pharmaceutical industry. And you see all the happy people in the ads, and they're, you know, take this, whatever it is, and they're happy and they're running around having a good time. And then underneath the ad, you hear the little tiny voice that's saying, taking this Yeah.

May cause death, heart failure, kidney failure, and impotence, right? Yeah. So, so they're telling you exactly what it is while showing you this picture of happiness, right? So if for regular people, they haven't heard this type of stuff, 'cause they're trapped in a world that is keeping their senses occupied by these visions of happy and healthy that are not true.

Michelle Leotta: So listen, I got kind of a nerdy question for you. Not health nerdy either, just about this whole industry that we're in. So, you know, we're a bunch of health coaches, but even if you think of other practitioners that maybe you've studied with or you've gone to, you know, you have your acupuncturist or you have your yoga teachers, or you have whomever, everyone has a different certification, a different diploma maybe on their wall.

I don't have any back there, but mine are all in a box. You know, I feel like there's an awful lot of talk about staying within our scope of practice, and so I heard that laugh now when you just said like, oh, I can talk to someone, and I can know they need a kidney forward menu, you know? I know somebody's ears were going off. Like, no, that's so out of scope. That's so out of scope. You can't diagnose, you can't prescribe. And I just thought you could speak to that.

Andrea Beaman: Yes, of course. So prior to all of the certifications and the capture of knowledge and medicine by big industries and governments, and states.

Prior to that, how did people learn for thousands of years? How did people learn? How did people heal? Well, generally there was. Maybe a shaman in the tribe or a medicine person in the tribe who certainly didn't have any qualifications from a big industry that had to keep them in their lanes, but they knew something, they had access to something, and that was handed down from generation to generation to generation.

So for me, I don't care how many certifications you have on your wall, right? That's not the true judge of knowledge for me, right? So the doctors that diagnosed me and said that I would never heal all had been through medical school, right? All had their certifications, all had their doctor licenses, but they all were incorrect.

Right. All of them were incorrect. So I understand that we have been led to believe that we need a specific, oh, you need a doctor of this and you need this, that, and the other thing. Uh, it's nice to get that stuff, but I wouldn't hang your whole career on in, 'cause I know lots of doctors that are, um, right.

They're giving out information that are not really serving people. Right. And then there are doctors, of course, that are serving people. Doing things that could be beneficial. Right. And even the doctors that have their, that are probably harming people with a lot of the medications, I think that somewhere in them they're thinking that they're doing the right thing.

Like sure, for example, let's even look at Ozempic, right? Look at the, everybody's, they been prescribing Ozempic to everybody for everything, right? Is a lot of money in Ozempic. And now what do we find out a few years later? Muscle loss, you can't get that muscle back. Especially, I mean that they just came out with a study that shows not only muscle loss by Ozempic, but bone loss as well.

So now you're giving this Ozempic to people to help them lose weight in an unnatural way. Right. It actually paralyzes the stomach. How is that good? Right? How is that good for anyone? Paralyzing the stomach and then their other systems in their body start to break down and fall away.

Michelle Leotta: Oh, but Andrea, if they have bone loss, that's okay. We have a drug for that. That's right. I mean, you guys hearing a thread through this whole conversation? Follow the money. Follow the money. And you know, even for health coaches who've gone to this school or that school or this certification program, that would follow that money, too. The more regulated things become, the bigger the industry gets, the more opportunities for these various certifications exist.

Michelle Leotta: Follow the money.

Andrea Beaman: That's correct. You know it's funny, I have been teaching my new healers master coaching program since 2012, and online, and it's a program where I teach people how to understand the body from a deeper perspective. And a lot of the students that come in there always say, what type of certification do I get on the other side?

And I tell them, it's a mentorship program. You're literally getting mentored with information and knowledge that's been passed down from thousands of years. Right. And they may feel that they need a certification to be qualified, but. I think the best way to qualify yourself is to actually put the information into action in an actual practice, right?

Because you could get a million certifications, but if you're not practicing with actual human beings, right, including yourself, it, it doesn't make a difference, right? I mean, why do you think a doctor's practice is called a practice? They’re practicing on people. Right.

Michelle Leotta: So it's true. It's true. I'm so glad you said that because we have so many health coaches sitting around with lots of knowledge and certifications and walls of books that they've read, but it's not doing anything to help the world because they don't have anyone.

That they're working with, and that is the whole reason that we do the marketing. Right. Just to circle back to the beginning of the episode, we only do the marketing so that we can take that knowledge and practice it. Otherwise, who are we serving? Nothing. Our brains's just getting bigger

Andrea Beaman: And the brain can get congested with all so much information, right? So if you're just putting information in without utilizing it in some way, then you don't know what's actually gonna work. This will work maybe for this, maybe this will work for that. Maybe this'll work for that, right? You have to really start to be discerning with the knowledge. And the way to do that is through practice, like literally through practice.

Michelle Leotta: All right. Well, you heard it from Andrea Beaman and herself. Everyone quit it with the stuff in your brain, full of knowledge. Get out there, work with some people. See what you learn. I think you'll get your certification. You'll get your PhD just by working with a number of clients. Totally. And they pay you.

Andrea Beaman: Yeah,

Michelle Leotta: It's kind of a win-win. You know, that's always my preferred form of learning is actually getting in the trenches with people. Yes. And putting this into practice.

Andrea Beaman: Yes. And you wanna hear something funny, like even in the health coaching world, there's what I call shysters, right? My food is medicine program.

My new healers program they were certified with a stamp from the National Institute of Health Coaching, something or other. It was like the N-H-W-B-C something, I forget what it was called. And then two years ago, I got an email from them and they said, you can't use our badges anymore unless you change the language on your landing pages because we can't say, and the people that we certify can't say that any type of healing comes from food or herbs. Right?

So she goes, if you changed the language on your landing pages, then you can keep our certification. And I sent them back an email, and I said, you can keep your certification because I know something different.

I don't know what regulations you're under, but I know, and I can see with my own eyes and experience and being in practice that when people change their food, their physical body changes. So, um, I'm gonna give you back your certification.

Michelle Leotta: Yeah. Well, I wonder if they gave you back the money you paid for it in the first place.

Andrea Beaman: No.

Michelle Leotta: Again, follow the money. Right. The more rules. The more certifications, the more seals. Yeah. That get stamped. There's money behind all of them. That's correct. But what you see and know with your own eyes and ears and heart that comes free of charge. We love that. So you mentioned a few times about like your new healers program, this mentorship that you do.

Tell our listeners a little more about that and I know they're gonna wanna look you up and find out more about you after listening to this episode.

Andrea Beaman: Well, that, um, my new healers program is once a year. I do it every January and it's literally health coaches and wellness practitioners, and I go through the body from the ancient perspective. I teach them about the liver and the heart and the kidneys and the gallbladder and all of the different organ systems, and then how you can use food as medicine to support those organ systems as well.

Michelle Leotta: To heal.

Andrea Beaman: To heal.

Michelle Leotta: Oh my God, you said it that,

Andrea Beaman: And use exercises to support those organ systems because you know the organ systems when they're functioning well, then everything kind of harmonizes inside the system. So that comes out every January, that new healers program.

And then of course I have my Food as Medicine program. Oh, don't use that word. Oh, definitely not. And that's a much smaller program, that's a series of cooking classes, you know, like getting in the kitchen and using food and herbs as medicine for like heart disease and cancer.

And um, and I remember, um. Oh my gosh, 20 years ago, my website got attacked by talking about healing cancer naturally, it got attacked, and now more and more people are coming out and really using food and herbs and mushrooms for cancer. Uh, so I'm not afraid to say it. I’m not. Food can heal.

Michelle Leotta: Food can heal. Maybe that's what we have to name this episode. Oh my God. And they're gonna come after me, you know? But you gotta speak your truth, and you're always so fantastic at doing that. Where should our listeners go to either learn more about your program or just to get in touch with you?

Andrea Beaman: Oh, they can go to www.andreabeaman.com.

I also have a really fun community, andreabeaman.com/healthcommunity, and that community, there's cooking classes, there's natural healing things. There's a whole bunch of fun stuff in there. It's all like, it's all the healthy granola, crunchy wellness people that you ever wanna have in your living room.

Michelle Leotta: That's us. I love that. I know you have like an ebook all about the meridians and stuff, too. Oh yeah. We gonna link to that in the show notes, so, oh, cool. Y'all can hit the show notes to find out everything you ever want to know about Ancient medicine and Andrea Beaman, and we are so glad that you joined us today. Andrea, thank you again.
Andrea Beaman: Oh, thank you for letting me share.

Michelle Leotta: Yes, share it all. Say all the words you're not supposed to say. I'm living for it right now.

Andrea Beaman: Oh my gosh. Oh boy. Keep hold onto your hat, sister. Hold onto your hat as we move forward in this crazy world. You heard it here first. Everyone. Thanks for being here.

Michelle Leotta: Thank you so much for listening to the Health Coach Power Community podcast. Please take a moment, leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. It helps us reach more coaches and allows me to bring you this free content every week to join us live. Ask your questions and have a direct line to me. Join our free Facebook group at HealthCoachPowerCommunity.com.