[Getting Started] Identifying Healing Opportunities with Reed Davis

Michelle Leotta:
Well hello there, health coaches. Thank you so much for joining me today. I have a surprise episode as part of our get started series. Today, I have Reed Davis from Functional Diagnostic Nutrition with us, and we're here to talk about what Reed just coined - I love this phrase, identifying healing opportunities. I have heard a lot of talk in our group lately about coaches who wish that they were able to get lab testing done, look at lab tests, help our clients by actually looking at the numbers that need to be looked at. And this is a possible solution for you guys. So especially if you're just getting started and you're like, how the heck can I help anyone as a health coach? You know, there's always that imposter syndrome. I don't know enough. I'm not a doctor. I don't have these letters after my name. I think you'll be very interested today in how much health coaches can actually do. So, Reed, thank you so much for joining us.

Reed Davis:
It's a real pleasure to be here, Michelle. Thank you for inviting me.

Michelle Leotta:
I can't wait to get into the juicy bits, but can you start us off by just telling us a little bit about who you are and how you got involved with health coaching?

Reed Davis:
Yeah, thanks very much. Well, it wasn't called that when I started back in the late nineties, you know, there was, uh, just all kinds of LA practitioners who were interested in helping other people. I actually came out of the environmental law fields. I was an environmental paralegal. I was saving the planet, air birds, water trees, bees. And I noticed the environment was really destroying a lot of these things around us. And I turned my attention to what what's it doing to people including me, you know, I didn't want anything sneaking up on me. And, and you hear about people dropping dead and you know, I've been healthy all my life really. And, um, even studied some things, uh, some, some Oriental or Chinese type medicine and stuff has just for herbalism and stuff in the past. Anyway. So, I turned my [inaudible], I switched careers. I went to work in a wellness center in Southern California and the owner said I could go to... She was getting her diploma in nutrition and said, I could go to her, all her classes with her and I'd get my own certificate. And then not only that, but I could work on her or with her patients in between my lessons.

Reed Davis:
So I was overwhelmed with that. I mean, she really hired me to run the place as a, as a businessman and, uh, you know, help them grow. But I fell in love when I, when I did that, went there. I fell in love with the clinical side working face to face with, uh, you know, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Jones, whomever. And, the next 10 years was just the most amazing period of hard work running thousands of labs on thousands of people, everyone that came in the office and everyone I could get to come in the office.

Reed Davis:
I was really good at going out and speaking in public and getting people to come in. And here's the thing. This is like the key to it. All. What really motivated me to this day is kind of the mission. Almost everybody coming in at office, Michelle had already seen multiple practitioners. Some of them have been a five, 10 or more practitioners and we're, well, yet now it was new to the, to the business or the field. And I thought, wow, what a rip off? You know, that doesn't make any sense. What's wrong with this system. Again, I was always healthy, so I never really needed to get into the medical system. And, and so I found out that it doesn't really serve the people very well, you know, unless it's some emergent thing. If you get victim of a drive by shooting, you know, you're not going to call your nutritionist.

Reed Davis:
So, I started really getting into what's really wrong. I said, now, easily looking back, it's kind of silly. Really. I said, well, I'm going to be the last person you need to see. And so, uh, I, I, I was just really fortunate enough to have great mentors there in the office. And they were alternative practitioners of the day, like the, the top ones and the guys who were running the labs back then it was all the alternative labs, you know, saliva testing and stool testing and urine testing. Everyone else. The state in medicine was only running blood tests for the most part. And people were being turned away saying, uh, well, nothing's wrong with your blood work looks normal. So a lot of you probably have heard that or know someone who's heard that. And I said, well, let's run these other labs that I'm learning about and see if we can find something that's really wrong with you.

Reed Davis:
And that's because I'm not a physician too. You have to understand, I've been doing this a long, long time, 22 years, and I've never once diagnosed a medical condition or treated a medical condition. What I've looked for is the phrase that you just quoted, healing opportunities. Like what's out of balance or what's dysfunctional, you know, what's going on. And, and just over those 10 years were thousands of labs on thousands of people. I recognize some patterns, see everyone, you know, all these people with these, uh, persistent long-term chronic degenerative, downward spiraling problems, uh, have a lot in common, the hormones, the immune system, digestion, detoxification, couple of the things. So, so I just became really good at looking in those areas. And then of course, you know, I wasn't diagnosed with treating anything specific, cause not a physician, but I was using the lab work.

Reed Davis:
And then the other sort of magic is that you couldn't use drugs. You couldn't write a prescription, you couldn't distill supplements. So these, I didn't want to just sell supplements. It didn't work anyway, if you just tried it. So I came up with this whole holistic way of, well, what do you really have to do to repair all of this chronic degenerative stuff? And it comes up with, with the lifestyle program, it's ancient wisdom, in a sense, it's applying the general principles of health building, like diet, the right one for you rest and, and stress reduction, which you know, is huge. Probably almost. Everyone's heard that word stressed before and then last but not least the supplements, you know that, and actually my training was a lot on the supplements and I found that that just wasn't satisfactory, just disowned stuff. So, it's, it's looking at these labs and all these areas and then applying the general principles will help to change. What's really going on upstream and people got, you know, pretty magical results. A lot of the time. And over the years I have kind of refined it to where it's very consistent, very repeatable, duplicatable, reliable, you know, reasonable expectations. Like almost no matter what your problem is.

Michelle Leotta:
Wow. So you've really been at this for a long time, you know, as I've been in health coaching industry since 2008, and I feel like that's ancient history, but you've been doing this since, before certifications even existed. And now you've got on to create Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. Can you tell us a little bit about that school and what you're doing over there?

Reed Davis:
So in 2008, I was when I taught my first class. And it was just because people are saying Reed, you need to be teaching teach, you should teach others. And, uh, the labs that I was using, they were coming to me and saying, who the hell are you? No one runs as many labs. No, I thought it was weird. I, why isn't everybody running this many, you know, I just didn't know you couldn't do it sort of. And I put my first class together, it was just a two day workshop. I stood in front of 200 slides, which took me six months to prepare, but I did a good job. I went and I only had 20 people. So that was the very first time I tried to teach. And it kind of was didn't even think I'd be very good at it. It was like, okay, I'll do it.

Reed Davis:
You know? And now I kind of fell in love with that. It's my next chapter, because, um, now I'm able to deputize people that go out in the world and do what I had learned to do very successfully in the office. So we had a very good track record. I did, I built a huge practice for myself, as a... the word health coach still wasn't around. I was, I called myself just like a nutritionist. I was also a personal trainer. I was a myofascial therapy body worker. You know, I had a lot of skills, bunch of other certificates. Like most of the people in our profession, we have multiple, we usually have bachelor's and master's degrees and multiple certificates and a lot of experience. And that's all I had, but it was, it was, you know, this, this course just took off and it created a real community around it. Everyone kind of loves being an FDN. If you hear about it, you'll usually hear it talked about fairly affectionately. Cause we're, you know, we're doing really good work and we're Michelle professional entrepreneurs as well. We hold ourselves out to the public to do some good. And um, and we all do pretty well with it if you follow the, the formula.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. So here's my question. Cause I've been doing this work a long time and over the past five-ish years, it's just become more strict, more certification is required. The state is red. The state is green. No, your state laws, no, you can't do this. No, you can't do that. Who's getting in trouble. Who's getting shut down. And yet here you are graduating health coaches who are able to get these lab tests done. Look at them, create protocols. How on earth is this legal?

Reed Davis:
Well, there's nothing illegal. There's no, uh, regulation of health coaching. First of all, none. And, um, we don't do anything wrong. You know, we don't practice medicine there. And matter of fact, I feel kind of on the leadership and, and uh, part of the sort of, um, generation that define the boundaries because I from day one have never practiced medicine. I've never crossed the fence. There's almost like a big gap between what, uh, the unlicensed practitioner does and medicine. I think that we have bridged that gap. And I think we own that bridge, but we never crossed the line. So I don't have an, I've never given a diagnosis or treatment of anything specific. And you might say, well then how do you help someone who's got fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue or something like that? We look at the healing opportunities upstream. And again, that's what they're, they're not medical diagnoses.

Reed Davis:
Matter of fact, most of the labs we'll use are considered research use. Only doctors don't use them. They use the IVD or in vitro diagnostic testing because they need a diagnosis to put on a piece of paper so they can get paid by an insurance company. There's all these algorithms that they have to work within. And I can, we could talk all day about that, but so, um, that's not our algorithm. You know, we are in an arm’s length transaction with a person who wants to find out what's really wrong and it's a service. It's kind of like, you know, even the lawyers are licensed. It's like a lawyer. If you go to a lawyer, you're going to pay them up front and then they're going to do their work. And that's how we operate to as entrepreneurs and as professionals, uh, we get paid to service a client.

Reed Davis:
Now that client wants to look at data. They don't want to be guessing anymore. They're tired of the run around this. I call it the cycle of trial and error. They've been to a physician they've been told, nothing's wrong with you. Your blood work looks normal or, you know, here's a chill pill prescription. It didn't even if they have an abnormal marker, it's only one marker. And so, and then they're kind of treating the paper here. This'll bring that one thing into range here. That's just their algorithm that they have to use. And so we're not bound by those things. So we can look at multiple healing opportunities and we're just looking where we're not diagnosing and treating others. And this word interpretation comes up. It's a non-medical interpretation or just an assessment or just education around. What's really going on. Now in my course, it's very robust.

Reed Davis:
We teach the anatomy, the physiology, the biochemistry what's really going on here. It's a very robust course and all that. And you have to know that to be able to, you know, look at the numbers in a, uh, again, not a medical interpretation, but what's really out of balance. What's really wrong here. What can this person, and then what can this person do? And so guys, the what can they do? And people are just thrilled, Michelle. When you go over the lab data and what's wrong with using information, it's just information about what's going on with you. And as long as you're not given that medical diagnosis. And so we're using that information to teach Mrs. Smith or Mr. Jones, why do they feel so crappy? And guess what they do? They go, I can't believe it. How come no one ever else ran these labs to me, I finally explained to me for the first time I've been struggling, I've seen 10 practitioners and I'm still not better yet.

Reed Davis:
Now you're finally showing me why I feel the way I do whatever that feeling might be or the, in it, maybe it's their appearance, something about the way they look or feel. And so we're going now. Well, you know, this is just how it works in our world. And, uh, you know, then they want to know, well, what do I do? And so now you've got some information data, uh, some, some numbers, if you want, that will help shape that, uh, lifestyle. It's completely holistic lifestyle. Again. Um, it's not diagnosing and treating specifically the beauty of our protocol is that it treats every cell tissue, organ and system simultaneously. Like if I said, um, what condition does exercise treat all of them? You know, it's in a sense you're treating every cell, every tissue, every organ, and every system, entire organisms going to improve when you exercise properly or when you sleep, uh, the regular proper amounts or when you eat right for your metabolic type.

Reed Davis:
And when you're not eating what foods you're sensitive to. And then there's, it just kind of goes from there. Diet, rest, exercise, stress reduction is huge. There's so many different, uh, types of stress. And we're pretty good at sorting that out and helping people sort that out. That's where some of the, the coaching comes in, if you want, and then supplementation again, you're not taking this for that, just using what's available with Uber buying anyway, and to, to support and to perhaps stimulate, like when you get on a plane, do you take your sink? You know, and your other immune system, of course, we all do. You know, that's, that's not prescribing this night. Um, medicating, you're just using what's kind of out there. That's available. That is supportive stimulatory, or simply what's missing from food. You know, food is low quality and I'll just kind of round it off by saying, um, food. Doesn't have all the vitamins and minerals and essential fatty acids, amino acids, antioxidants, phytonutrients, trace elements, because the ground is so, uh, void of those things, you know, the commercial food, even organic food, isn't that much more nutritious. We just eat it because it's got no pesticide. We're avoiding as a form of stress reduction. You want less stress on your body, eat less poison. You know, that's pretty good. That's a tip kind of for the ages.

Michelle Leotta:
There's a hot tip for free.

Reed Davis:
So we look at the H I D D E N stressors and dysfunctions. That's the hormone immune digestion, detoxification energy production and nervous system. That's where we look for healing opportunities. It's a, it's a very, you know, step-by-step procedure when you're assessing, helping someone, they hire you to, to, to help them. Uh, so we have to look at those things and then we just recommend, and kind of tailor the D R E S S diet rest, exercise, stress reduction, supplementation. That's why people love FDN because it's, it's laid out. It's really well organized. It's step by step. And, you know, I teach it on a, on a, uh, on a, like a gradient, you know, kind of the easier stuff. First, you do get a lot of, um, you know, science people have compared it to a master's program, in terms of the amount of scientific stuff. I mean, again, anatomy physiology about chemistry. Uh, we throw in a few good doses of, uh, you know, mental, emotional, spiritual type stuff too. And, uh, that way we're actually dealing with the whole person.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. So let me ask you this. I've been health coach for 12 years, and like right now I'm working with a client who pretty sure she's got some hypothyroidism going on. So, what I would do now in my practice is give her a list of lab tests that I think that she could benefit from getting from her doctor. She's going to go to her doctor. She's going to ask for these tests, what typically happens is they'll do like one or two of them. They don't do all of them, or they'll say, well, that's not going to be covered by insurance, but, you know, blah, blah, blah. She gets thrown around. What would be different in my practice in this case, if I were certified through FDN's program?

Reed Davis:
Well, you cut out the middleman and you cut out all the nonsense about the algorithms around insurance and billing. What's covered. What's not covered. And that can, again, I can spend an hour on how frustrating people can get by going through that system. And, and the algorithms there. They can't get to the right. Even if they need medication, they can't even get to the right one. You have to try this one first. It has to not work. Then you can try the next one, and this one not work. And maybe by the fourth one, you get what the doctor knew was going to be the one that worked for you, but the algorithms don't allow that. So again, we'll put that off to the side for a minute and say that you cut out the middleman. So we have, what's called a medical director program. It's only available to my graduates and it's a, it's a direct consumer lab testing program.

Reed Davis:
Now, when I started, there was only me and one other company, and I started at a pure necessity. So I was in the office for 10 years and decided to start teaching. And then I realized that my, most of my students get the lab work. I was getting it through the doctors where I worked. They just trusted me. And they just knew, you know, who I was. And, and, and they helped me shape that whole nonmedical, no diagnosing, no treating, um, and the protocols and stuff. So, so I had to make a deal with the lab. I was using one main lab and my best friend physician, uh, who to, to be able to provide the same, uh, accessibility to my students. Well guess what, there's 40 different companies doing that now, including the major, the major, uh, referencing labs quest and lab Corp have direct to consumer programs.

Reed Davis:
So anyone can get labs. The difference is, do you know what you're looking at? Do you know which labs you really want to see? Do you know, uh, what to, you know, how to shape your protocols based on that information. So that's where our training comes in, but anyone could do lab right now could go work with several of different sort of directed consumer companies. So what you're doing as a health coach, you're not ordering it like a physician would order x-rays or order, you know, a CT scan or a blood work even. Um, you're just like you just said, you rec you would, you know, the client would get certain lab work, done, hope their doctor will run it again. Just sort of cut out the middlemen, tell them what you just said, and then expedite it for them. You can, uh, just have that relationship with the lab.

Reed Davis:
They're our medical director program and get the kits shipped to that person. But all you're sending them when you're ordering for them is a box with some tubes in it. And a couple, a submittal forms. You're not ordering it. And it seemed a phrase that a doctor orders an x-ray or did, you know, like did they have to do again as part of their algorithms and standard of care. So, um, you're just expediting. They're paying you to do it. And obviously if they're paying you to, to help them in this way, they're going to want you to give them your assessment of what does the paper say. So you're going to help them with that. You're going to understand the anatomy, the physiology, the biochem, and everything going on. What's out of balance. And by the way, we focus there. So again, we're not looking for treatment options.

Reed Davis:
And I spent 10 years as a clinical advisor for a lab, had doctors call me. I just gave him, I ended up narrowing it down about two hours every Friday morning, and still on the phone with doctors saying, uh, you know, what's the, what's the diagnosis, what's the, uh, dosage, what's the frequency, you know, of the agent to use, to treat the paper. And I, I converted a lot of doctors to our way of thinking that, no, it doesn't work like that here. You know, here's the healing opportunity. This is what the, you know, tell me about this person and what in, and we can talk about what they need to do.

Michelle Leotta:
So let me interrupt you there. When you said that I would be able to get on the phone with your facility, get some lab tests for my client. Are we talking about blood tests? Are you doing like Dutch testing? Like how extensive is the testing?

Reed Davis:
We have 72 labs that we work with. Yeah. Started with one. But you know, I'm in there, wasn't 72 labs around in 2008. When I started, there was especially on this sort of the alternative, uh, the functional labs and things. Now there's, well, everyone's jumping in the game. So we use labs by the way, we're in 50 countries. So we have to deal with labs in Australia and United Kingdom and Europe. And in Canada, we have a new, new lab from Canada we're just loving. And, um, you know, again, I spent 10 years, uh, with the I, I'm still, I'm on another clinical advisor staff now for another lab. And so, it's, it's a, you know, we've been doing it a long time and I feel really confident that we're doing the right thing for the people.

Michelle Leotta:
This is really fascinating. So I just heard you say that you're graduating health coaches that are able to run lab tests, help their clients. Look, those numbers improve their health based on those numbers across the us and every state. Yes.

Reed Davis:
It's harder in some States to get the lab work. That's something I have no control over in some countries. It's impossible. People call me from Lebanon. Can I sign up for your course? Yeah. You can sign up for the course. You should take the course. You should learn everything. They have to teach you instead of developing your American clientele or clientele that live in countries, besides yours is your country. You won't let us send, uh, it's not so much. We can't get the empty boxes with the tubes into the country. You can't get the specimens back out of the country. You know, they won't ship stool... Even like South America. Uh, Mexico's hard, you know, China is not impossible, but you got to know somebody there and so-and-so. You got to work through Hong Kong for the most part. So, so w we've kind of got this experience around the globe. Um, but in the United States, uh, the only really difficult state is New York, which I think is where you are. And, my FDN is, are just, they within the labs are very creative. No one's breaking any laws, but, um, there's just ways they seem to get the work done and, you know, I'm not operating out in New York myself. So, I don't, you know, have much to do with it, but I know they're getting lab work done.

Michelle Leotta:
Very interesting. Okay. So these are really empowered health professionals doing work that I think goes in a whole other arena beyond, but most health coach schools are providing their students with the ability to do so. I wanted to, first of all, thank you for sharing all of that with us. And for those listening and those watching, you can go to health coach power.com/f D N to learn more about this really unique program from Reed and all that they have to offer. We do have some graduates within our community who rave about the program. So I definitely think it is worth checking out. And Reed, thank you so much for your time today.

Reed Davis:
And Michelle it's my pleasure. If I can answer any more questions for you or your listeners at any time, you feel free to reach out. I'm glad we met up.

Michelle Leotta:
Amazing, have a great rest of your day. And thanks for joining us. Everybody take care.