Community Builders Speak Series: Community Helps to Drive a Person’s Health

This Community Builders Speak Series was inspired by the first article I wrote a couple of weeks back on The What, Why and How of Community Building. I have had the privilege to meet amazing people in the fitness and wellness space in the last two years and I wanted to highlight what these self-employed individuals understood as Community Building and how they were building Community in their respective businesses.

I am hoping that by speaking to these entrepreneurs/business owners and sharing their story, it can bring greater relevance to others, and will inspire and motivate others to understand the true meaning of Community Building, from a non-social services and non-sales angled approach.

Many are already building Community with their client and follower base, but they do not even know it! This series is for you to learn from different individuals in different stages of their entrepreneurial and Community building journey, and apply it to our own situations, and hopefully reap the benefits from it.

Dr Cheryl Kam – Functional Medicine Coach

Today I speak to Dr Cheryl Kam, Functional Medicine Coach.

Below is our conversation that has been transcribed and edited for you.

Tell me more about yourself and your business

I am a functional medicine coach where I use functional medicine as a tool for life and health coaching to achieve results for success. You’ll be surprised how a little bit of herbs and supplements could go a long way. And as much as I believe that functional medicine removes the need for long term medication, I also believe that in the longer term, there should also be no need for any supplements. 

It was a huge decision for me as a trained doctor to come out of the doctoring role, to build and pursue this role as a functional medicine coach. I felt that this was the best way for me to effect change more powerfully, at the same time respecting my own time as the mother of a one- and three-year-old, and another one on the way.

As a doctor and more importantly a functional medicine doctor, there is a need to be healthy. I did not want to constantly be a working tired mum. I wanted to be able to role model for my clients that it was possible to manage nutrition, mindset and lifestyle.

Coming out of the clinic setting allows me to go to people. Rather than wait for people to come to me for help. When they come, it might already be too late, and they would already have “fallen off the cliff”.

The work I do now is about education and awareness because people still do not know what functional medicine is. It’s an understanding of a lifestyle and clients/patients must be proactive to keep up with appointments and adhere to a programme for it to show results. It’s not like traditional western medicine where you’re prescribed medication and expected to get better.

My clients now are mostly women at various crossroads of their life. The issues they are facing could be anything from transitions, hormones, health, thyroid, stress, prenatal or postnatal. 

Research shows that the determinants of health do not lie in medicine. But the determinants of health lie in Community, nutrition, mindset and lifestyle. Functional medicine is able to address all of these and results in better sleep, lower stress and improved health for life.

How is coaching different from telemedicine?

I coach based on my clients’ entire wellbeing, beyond the initial problem they came to me for.

Coaching is helping my client get from point A to point B and having a time period in which to get it accomplished by. It’s a relationship and different from a telemedicine consult.

Through trial and error, I realised that there is a lot of repeated information that I do for different clients. This inspired me to set up a course to address this, so now I have introductory courses, even before any client decides to engage me for one-to-one coaching with the necessary handholding. This allows me to reach more people, and also is more cost effective for the client.

Covid made it easier for everyone to consume information online and my first 14-day course which was a recorded session had 60 sign-ups. Once someone signs up for a course, they become a part of the Community.

Through the course, I equip people with the knowledge of key nutrient tests to get tested for, how to read their results and how to supplement safely and effectively. I feel many are looking for a new paradigm of health but need help to navigate the still conventional medical system. 

If there is a need then we get on a call for one-to-one coaching. This process not only allows me to funnel the need and demand, but also to hit a wider audience with the same amount or less amount of work done.

How did you manage to create the branding and top-of-mind recall as Dr Cheryl Kam the functional medicine doctor? Was this done over time or a conscious effort knowing that you were going to leave to be a coach?

Of course, I had to go through a soul-searching journey to understand what would work best for me. Even as a doctor and GP, as much as we are expected to know and be good at everything, we have to find our strengths and what we like to do. 

This is a process that is also good for younger doctors to be able to go through because by seeing more people and understanding their needs better, they understand what they like and are really good at doing.

Through my consults with patients, I realised that education is very important for functional medicine. I was found to be THE functional medicine doctor within a conventional clinic setting but I had to identify what platform would work best for me to further my work and my reach, and not compromise on my role as mother.

When I started, I didn’t have an email database. It was just my existing clients. But I was good at social media and because I like writing and expressing myself, I wrote blogs and on social media. This was at the expense of a strong email database, which I have since realised it very important. So always take care of your newsletter database!

I made the mistake to focus on the vanity of the number of followers on my social channels and did not put any thought into building that email list. After deciding to focus on the important email list, I realised most of the people who contacted me and that continued to buy/engage/refer were actually from that list.

Who do you define as your Community?

I get a good number of people contacting me after reading my articles and blog posts. Instagram is a good reach for me as well since I am writing about things that I am interested in. This essentially is digital word-of-mouth referrals.

I have patients who come in to tell me they followed me on Instagram and that’s how they knew of the work I do. We kind of are already on some level of click and we don’t have to reinvent or explain everything from the beginning. It makes the entire process and relationship of coach and coachee more authentic and smoother. I don’t need to “sell” anything anymore because they already decided that it was a good match and a good fit from seeing and reading what I post on social media. 

Those that follow me tend to be looking outside of the medical system for an answer, something non-invasive and non-pharmacological.

My background of having the conventional medical training is an advantage. Patients feel comforted by that fact. There is a magnetic effect where the content I put out attracts those that are looking for such information. I put out information that I feel I can give value for and therefore attracting those who need exactly that help.

People I attract are already quite empowered and want to get more empowered. There is a high percentage of those whom I have treated and coached who come back wanting to learn and know more. And because they themselves were given a new lease of life; they too want to do the same for others as health coaches. This is testament to the journey they go through. These people make me happy doing the work that I do.

Education means teaching people to be responsible for their own health. My workshops are about learning and facilitate the educating part, the one-to-one coaching sessions are where the magic happens.

Anyone that is and was my client and also those who follow my content belong to my Community!

How did you come to understand that Community is going to help drive a person’s health? 

I didn’t learn this in school but indirectly there are statistics to show that being alone without Community puts you at risk. And there is a lot of data now that supports that if you want to get into good exercise habits, you should do it with friends.

By combining pathology and the clinical side with human understanding and relationships, it then is not difficult to know that Community would be that missing piece to make things work.

What is your purpose and what drives you to do what you do?

My passion is functional medicine and I have always wanted to change the healthcare terrain. The mindset in general population is already changing. This has been accelerated by the pandemic where people are realising that conventional medicine does not always have the solutions they are searching for.

People are starting to understand that being able to constitutionally stay healthy and keep immunity up is key to keeping diseases away.

My mission is to make functional medicine mainstream in the next few years. My online academy serves to educate health practitioners and doctors on how to integrate these principles into their current work. It is a transformational experience inside out, from the way they live their own lives, to the patients they eventually transform, and the rest are thriving waitlists they create for their businesses.

Functional medicine is expensive because a lot of the active solutions are no covered by insurance. From the consultations to the tests to be done to the supplements.

Maybe there is no need to call it functional medicine, because it is essentially being provided with the right nutrients or supplements. This would help in galvanizing doctors to have some tools and have the confidence to treat deficiencies.

It took a while for insurance companies to accept claims for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and chiropractic, so the time will come for functional medicine to be recognized as well.

Do you have a specific target you are working towards for building your Community?

I am coasting now and enjoying taking care of current clients and my list. There has been too much going on and in flux for 2020 so I will be taking it easy. My goal is to address the needs of women and mothers. And eventually doctors as well, who might be facing burnout because that’s where I have been before.

It is my mission to change the world for women, and I firmly believe in a world where women being the heart and soul of the family is completely compatible with being a strong Community leader.

How have you prepared yourself for growth?

By knowing my strengths, building my team and delegating, I am better able to channel my best energy serving those that need my 110% presence.  

My surrounding Community is also key, working and collaborating and raising up others and their businesses, who share my mission. 

What has your biggest challenge been so far?

To many, it is unfathomable to lose the title of doctor. Naturally, it was for me as well. But once I got over that, the rest came very easily.

A lot of change and adjusting comes with that. From the way I work, to examination to a different role I now had to play.

Some doctors might not be able to deal with the uncertainty of income and also life. I guess it’s the normal thing for every job, but for doctors, the doctor title confers some form of measure of prestige and respect, so that was the biggest challenge for me.

Do you have any success stories to share?

I had a client suffering from PCOS. What she took away from our sessions dramatically changed her life so much that she wanted to do the same for others. The motivation to be able to show up better for your family, and to have the health to be there for family, really is the most powerful. 

This is a story of being able to translate health gains into life gains. Gaining confidence in health inevitably also means gaining confidence in interpersonal relationships, your partner/spouse, and also with others at work.

Any last words and tips for other self-starters and solopreneurs?

If you are not already onboarded into a Community so you can all start thinking together, then perhaps it is time to start. 

Work with the right clients because if they don’t follow the programme then you both will not be able to see the necessary success because the work does not get done.

Hire a business coach and be around good mentors that you can go to for help or advise. You need to have someone to ask you those hard questions and help you see those blind spots. Having someone to watch over you and keep you accountable is important, otherwise you might run out of steam, get discouraged, and might even get lost in the process.

About Alex Loh

I am a consultant and coach in the fitness, health and wellness space, business owner, loving husband and doting father.

My compass is guided by the desire to help people. I help individuals and business owners to find purpose. Together we unlock fruitful solutions, experience growth and achieve targeted success. Having successfully built and maintained communities over the years, my focus is to help businesses and organisations harness community as the vehicle to connect, and build credibility, trust and authentic relationships.

Come speak to me about Developing Wellness Strategies, Finding Purpose, Building Communities and/or in Optimising your Life! 

Photos from www.pexels.com.