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Episode 21 · 1 year ago
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Episode 21 · 1 year ago
Dr Pooch - Creator of the Get Well Johnny Books talks Holistic Health
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
How to get kids and adults to eat more healthy with holistic health education expert and author of the "Get Well, Johnny" books, we have Dr Pooch in this episode. Hello and welcome to the impact Goal Rush Podcast. This is the podcast for impact Entrepreneurs. This podcast aims to amplify the voices of impact entrepreneurs addressing the United Nations Global goals, AKA The Sustainable development goals. Listen in to fellow impact entrepreneurs on their journey in this new goal rush of making a bigger impact. Get inspired to learn how, through entrepreneurship, you can grow your impact and make the world a better place, leave a legacy and live a more meaningful life. I'm your host, Woon Tan. If you've missed the previous episode, we had Francesco Cara talk to us about his experience working with the next generation of entrepreneurs in digital innovation and sustainability, Francesco talked about his observations of changes taking place in the market since building if you want to an early platform curating clean eb, Sustainable lifestyle digital innovation solutions. Here's my conversation with Dr Pooch. Welcome to another episode of the Impact Goal Rush podcast. With me today I've got Dr Pooch of doctorpooch.com. Doctor Pooch is also the founder of The Doctor Pooch Foundation, and he's got a series of books called the "Get Well Johnny" books that he's putting together, and we're gonna be talking about how he is making a difference in providing education for kids early holistic health care, education. So welcome to the show. Thank you Woon. Thank you for having me. So, Dr Pooch, what is it that you have put together? Could you explain to us what you have got on offer? Well, uh, premier product is the "Get Well Journey 12". It comprises of 12 children's books that cover the most important holistic health topics...
...imaginable in a fun, holistic way. They're broken down so easily that a child can understand them. And I'm talking about things like I have a book called "Inflammation" uh, "Inflammation Nation", that covers, you know, obviously information on anti-inflammatory foods. So it's, it's, something that a doctor could use with their potential patients in regards to their nutrition and how they're addressing their inflammatory illness. So, it's just, something so, so simple to all of these complex issues regarding holistic health, sugar and salt are big issues, so I you know, it's, I bring it to the forefront and create stories around these concepts, I create games and activities that children can go home with and interact in a fun way with their own parents and talk about these things. The most important thing right now, I think it's just talk about holistic health subjects. So we all become more health literate. I like the concept. Health literate. So one of the books. I'm just reading out the title of the book. You're so you've got Sugar from "Nature is Always Fine". Yeah, as opposed to refined. Yeah, "Wholefood is Better" So keep it together. Yeah, "He Stood up for Himself". Yeah, he stood up for himself. Yeah, that book is about bullying. And then you got "Where does all the water go?" Yep, I wonder all that water knows. And then you have "Super Foods are Super Fun". Yeah, they're super good for everyone. Yeah, So they are the kind of the books and you can kind of get the idea how, how interesting and exciting that book is for kids. Right? So you mentioned the level of education that we are sort of receiving. Why is it that kids are not taught these in the wider mainstream? Okay, let me just say this: If you...
...talking about "Super Foods are Super Fun", if you ask the doctor what their favourite superfoods are, they probably would say broccoli, kale, spinach and maybe a sigh or some other comment. Superfood. But you know, broccoli, kale and spinach are not necessarily super foods. So we're at a disadvantage that even the medical system, the medical education, has focused very little on nutritional knowledge or hold, you know, even, even holistic health concepts. So they just learn about the various names of diseases, as I kind of I'm kind of poking at that in the, in that book "Inflammation Nation", really identifying what inflammation is, because we have hundreds of names for diseases, right? I mean, we're at this point right now, everybody's sick. There's a name for every type of illness around. But what's going on? What's the underlying issue? It's some type of inflammatory disease somewhere in the body, some kind of chronic illness is continuing, and so the only true way to address that is through proper lifestyle choice, right? So the holistic approach and so imagine a generation of children understanding these basic nutritional, let alone a doctor, imagine the children understanding this fundamentally, like, who will they become as the next generation of doctors, as the next generation of teachers and parents, and, you know, so we're at a real turning point where the children have to learn concepts that we may not have learned during our youth or, you know, even adolescence. It isn't and hasn't been part of the common curriculum. With the books that you have created. Could you share this? How has the journey being? Because it's been a journey, I know, I'm pretty sure, and , like, could you share? How did you...
...start, you know, what was the trigger behind the idea of these books? And how was the process in creating that? Yeah. So I wrote all of these books in 2012, probably. They just started coming to me one by one. I was following a school tour, I was working with a potential business partner at the time. When we're trying to find, we had both graduated, well, I graduated first out of a certified programme for holistic health coaching squads going out into my community and just holding conversation. I will go to a park and different young men around my age would come every Friday and we would talk about holistic health concepts, and I would lead the discussion and, you know, that grew into some type of entrepreneurial spirit. And, you know, I'll save you the drama. Everything comes with drama and trials and tribulations and just craziness. But eventually this idea of reaching kids came into fruition, and it's always been part of my dream to write children's books. I had already gotten the intuition years prior to that, maybe like a year or two prior to that, with the character and this character of Johnny Moustache, who we now know is Get Well Johnny. This came into my mind and so, slowly the universe was just giving me downloads of what I needed to do. And I just became the character of Dr Pooch, Dr Pooch is a childhood nickname, and I just embodied everything that I loved. To this day, I'm a songwriter. I've written for many different groups, and so I supplied that passion for writing. I applied my passion for health, and I applied the entrepreneurial spirit into a product, and while I was following the school tour, I was just learning and soaking up everything that I could about what they're doing in school, and mind you,...
...professionally, I always worked in schools as well, had many years working in schools and always excelled at these positions, working with kids like I just I'm a natural educator. And so I just got all these downloads for these concepts. I knew that the bully book was an important thing, because this was an important topic within the schools. One after the other, these books developed, and so I found an illustrator and developed and unfortunately, like I said in the beginning, the illustrator passed away of cancer while we were making this book, series. But I knew how important this was, it like, as I started developing this book series, almost my life's purpose began to unfold, you know, part of my life's purpose, but I feel this is really the cornerstone in my life's purpose, to bring something positive and life changing to children. So if I can sustain myself and help others learn how to sustain themselves, right? Nutritionally and holistically for generations to come, not only this generation, then I've done my job here on Earth. I could I could say I left something. You know, this is, this is just a piece of what I want to leave. But, you know, this is a body of work that I'm really proud of. It's, it's definitely making an impact, and I can't wait for the larger impact. Well, that's amazing. So what's been the response? You know, for some of the books? And what are people saying, you know, when it comes to supporting you on this journey? I've been creating things my whole life. I started writing at 11 years old and was serious about it. I've spent hours doing that. I have songs, you know, around the world, and I used to be really into art and draw. I make, you know, I'm I'm a creator. I've never created something...
...that has this response of these children's books. When I'm out in the community, like, I could have these books on a table, just upright, so people can see them. People walk by and they double-take and take a few steps back to come back to that table and see what's on that table and they recognise it every single time, and this has been for years now. I've been pushing these books, just the six books, right? It's hardly been completed. I know what the full impact could be, and that's why I'm just overjoyed right now. It's The 12 are about to come out. Like, these six books, people have to just take a double look literally, time and time again. I've talked to I'm from L.A. I validated this product with South Central L.A. Mainly through South Central L.A. I validated this product. I pushed this product through the streets of South Central L.A. and time and time again from businessmen, older women to children, educators, to gangsters to hustlers to drug... anybody I present this book to, they say, "Wow!" and that's an honour, like I, I'm in awe that I get this type of response, that children, time and time again, are literally changed by the time that they read one story, like, I'm so honoured that this type of work came through me, you know, it's just, it's beyond me like it just really makes me proud. And that's what keeps me going. That's what I'm like. I can't stop. I have six more books that I'm getting ready to put out, and this is gonna be the most impactful book series that children have ever seen. That's gonna be the most important it's going to be a part of, just like Dr Seuss right now is a part of children's lives. This, this book, series will be a changing point, a reference point, in their childhood, you...
...know, when they started thinking about holistic health. But, yeah, the response is just amazing. I can't wait to see the full response when the 12 I laid out on this is gonna take two tables to lay them out. And I can't wait to see the full response. You know, for someone who is listening to this and they were sort of looking at you and hearing this and seeing your journey, what advice can you give to someone who, who might have an idea and they want to bring it to life and have that impact? What, what advice would you give to them? What can you share? I would say, be your biggest fan, and if you're your biggest fan, then nothing can stop you. Because whatever you do, there's gonna be people that, if it's a grand idea, they'll want to steal it and you have to fight for it tooth and nail. You have to be willing to go to court, and you have to be willing to do all of that. And I've done all of that for this product, like you have to be ready to, cos business is war. You have to be willing to lay everything down on the line for what you believe in. If you believe in something, and that's the energy that you have to put behind what you create, It, it's literally, if it's your creation, then it's your child, and you have to care for it as your child and raise it up and nurture it until it can grow up and be on its own. But you can't let that go. You can't let a baby go. If you let the baby go, the baby's gonna get, it can't care for itself, so you have to care for it until it's of age and it could start walking and then it can start talking and then it can start, you know, then you can leave it alone and sell it do whatever you want to do with it. But if you care for it, nobody else is gonna care for your idea but you, so you have to do everything. You can't complain about it and you can't say, make excuses. You have to do it. Otherwise it won't be done. Amazing. So, Dr Pooch, what's...
...your vision when it comes to the series of books like, you know, what do you see being what some of the big next steps for you and what sort of help you might, might someone who might be listening to this might be able to offer? Yes, I'm at a really, really critical point. My, 100% of my focus right now is just on completing the book series and just getting the subsequent six books ready to print which, it's moving along. I'm days away from that. At this point, I'm also revamping. I've been getting a lot of support in revamping my social media, my website. I'll be launching a new website soon, so you know, as I'm building this marketing campaign, everything is comes down to marketing. Everything comes down to who knows about this product? So publicity talk shows like this or podcasts like this. This is, these are great opportunities for me to get my message out. That's the help that I need. I mean, we're a foundation, obviously, donations are welcome. Purchases are welcome. You can purchase from my website at this point or from Amazon, supporting the product and word of mouth, spreading it out there, letting everybody know, anybody with a child, know that there is this type of material that's out there and it'll grow organically. It has to grow. There's not a demand for it because people don't know. But there is the need for it. And so that's why word of mouth and I'll do my part to create the best marketing material that I can create to get my message out there. But this is just the beginning. You know, these 12 books are just the first step, like I have. I have much more to come. But if we can get these 12 books, my goal is to get them in every child's hand throughout the world, because the...
...world is dealing with, it's a global health crisis, you know. So we have to change the way that we think and that we do things and it's upon the next generation. It's not for me, it's not for my own ego that I want to be, you know, the next Dr Seuss and bigger, right? They say Dr Seuss sold, like, over 600 million books, like, and had movies and all of these things, it's not really for me like I'm beyond, you know? Of course. I mean, we all have ego and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, of course. But it is bigger than me. This is not about me. This is about a sustainable planet. This is about the children. This is about the future generations. So, yeah, if you're passionate about that, connect with my foundation. Like I said, donations are welcome. We need publicists right now, we need all the exposure that we can get and help us get our story out, so we can sustain ourselves and continue making great content for kids, that's that's life changing. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that Dr Pooch. And for anyone who is listening to this, please head over to drpooch.com and get yourself the series of books and you can find them on Amazon as well. So that's today's episode. Thank you for being here and sharing your time, Dr Pooch. Thank you Woon. Appreciate it. So there you go. That was Dr Pooch. What's been your biggest takeaway from this episode? Let us know in the comments section on our social media page. If you haven't subscribed yet, please do subscribe. This will really help us grow our podcast. And if you can think of someone that would benefit from listening to this podcast, please do share it with them from quality health to heavy industry. In the next episode, we have Boris Gregera talk about a nation energy where he's working on decarbonising the battery production process. It's a superfast anything episode where he shares his practical advice from his experience developing high tech solution to an...
...emerging problem in the battery production process. So tune in for next week's episode. Thank you very much for listening into the end of this episode. We really appreciate you. This is the Impact Goal Rush. My name is Woon Tan, and I'll see you in the next episode.
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