EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Erik shares the changes with the show in the coming month such as a name change. His purpose is to provide you with the tools that are going to help you the most which is why some changes to the show are coming. There will be a new name which will be announced soon.  KEY POINTS: Erik talks about a story with a day trader and how there are times when people make money when the market is down (called shorting the market) and compares it to craps when betting against everyone but actually with the house. In that instance the odds are in the person’s favor to win but they are usually in the minority compared to the rest of the gamblers at the table. It is an interesting philosophy that shows there are many different ways to earn money     RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

OVERVIEW: Dr. Lindsey Marvel, optometrist describes getting into the field which was not widely accepted by her family even though she is a doctor. The focus she had growing up was on sports, especially tennis as she was a highly ranked tennis played that led to a collegiate career and school was secondary. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Being in competitive tennis allowed Lindsey to utilize her skills developed in competing directly against someone else, translated into understanding how to handle nervousness in optometry school when it came to demonstrating her capability to perform eye exams while being tested. It also helped in dealing with adversity and failure by bouncing back from difficult circumstances. Lindsey continues to visualize like she did in tennis, where it’s a process done beforehand so she is prepared for different situations.    KEY POINTS: Lindsey describes different challenges with not having equipment in certain clinics she worked at and the appropriate access to proper care right after graduating from school, especially when it was beyond the scope of her practice.  Lindsey talks about the importance of eye exams when it comes to health and catching things early, to prevent problems from happening. She describes the current process of tele-health and performing eye exams from home.   TWEETABLE QUOTES: “The visualization part has to be early on...picturing myself doing well. Also going through different scenarios, what if this happens or that happens.” –Lindsey Marvel “With diabetic eye disease, there are new blood vessels that form and need to be put out like a fire...if new ones form and talk to each other they can spread like a wild fire.” –Lindsey Marvel “They never one with glaucoma because it’s the silent killer of vision.” –Lindsey Marvel “The eye is really a window into the body.” –Lindsey Marvel RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Check out the Seva Foundation Email Dr. Lindsey Marvel Follow @lindsemarvel on Instagram

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Erik shares a story of a conversation he recently had with an individual who studied finance and daily trades in the market. It was interesting to find that the individual was not aware of different financial concepts.  KEY POINTS: Erik revisits the rule of 72, the compound interest formula where we take the number 72 and divide it by the interest rate we earn on our money and it equals the number of years it will take our money to double.  72 / % rate = # years money will double  Erik also talks about the indexing strategy where our money is not in the market but is based on market performance and we get the growth but are protected from the downside in case the market goes down. He brings up index funds which people are familiar with where a mutual fund is composed of specially the S&P 500.          RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

OVERVIEW: In this episode of Fitness & Finance, Kristi Lee Cronin, Cardiology Nurse Practitioner shares how she got into the field of nursing and the challenges that came along the way. Her story is inspiring because it shows that persistence pays and we cannot avoid the things that are on our hearts.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Kristi has been into sports most of her life and believes that it is important to stay active especially since it is good for our heart. The heart is her favorite organ as it is involved in so many things and keeps us alive. She originally did not get accepted into nursing programs but knew that she always wanted to be in the field as she grew up with family members who are health care professionals. Knowing that it was meant to be she continued to pursue nursing and was accepted into an accelerated program and then practiced for over 5 years before deciding to make a change. Seeing a gap in care with patients she wanted more responsibility and control over patient care and decided to become a nurse practitioner where she is licensed and had to take board exams.  She is now able to prescribe medications in the state of Florida and has enjoys being able to provide her patients with the care needed and specializes in cardiology because the heart is very important for living.  KEY POINTS: Kristi is very resourceful and talks about being able to adjust her lifestyle during nurse practitioner school in order to minimize the amount of student loans she needed during that time and how she was disciplined in paying them off. Sticking to a school is also what allows her to accomplish a great deal as she is also a wife, mother of two, and also wrote a book Black Balloons. In the book she describes how using and strengthening her faith got her through difficult challenges (black balloons). RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Visit KristiCronin.com – Book Available Here! Find @kristileecronin on Social Media  

OVERVIEW: Erik talks about the news of Kobe Bryant’s death and what it means to him and the lessons learned from the tragedy. Unfortunately it takes tragedy to bring people together and appreciate one another as we need to tell people how we feel about them always because we do not know how long we are going to live.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: It’s is important to appreciate and love people because we never know what is going on in each other’s lives as our time is limited. We often take time for granted so it is a must that we live our lives the way we want to live them and not care what others think.   This is our one opportunity to truly be happy and maximize every single moment of every day the way we want to. Being present is important as we value our experiences so we need to put our all into everything. Going through the motions and “killing time” does not serve us nor those around us.  KEY POINTS: Our legacy is to advance life and set the next generations in better positions than we are currently in. It all starts with ourselves and everything that we do. We need to treat our lives like they are valuable and do better in our health and finances.             RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

OVERVIEW: In this episode of Fitness & Finance, real estate investor Vee Khuu shares his experiences getting into real estate investing as an immigrant from Vietnam in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, the benefits of investing out-of-state, tax liens & more.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: What was Vee’s upbringing like, especially as an immigrant from Vietnam?  Vee grew up playing volleyball and has become a volleyball coach here in the US.  Vee read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, which led him to workshops and coaching in real estate.  When Vee got involved in real estate it was in the middle of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, with tons of foreclosures, so he was interested in buying wholesale from foreclosures.  He found a coach and bought his first property in only three months, and that was only five years after he came to the US.  As someone new to the country, Vee developed the confidence to pursue this line of work after he invested so much money into the coaching that he had nothing left to lose.  Vee learned that he didn’t need any liquid cash in order to make an offer to buy a property, he only needed to put earnest money down once an offer is accepted and contracts are signed, at which point Vee had time to flip the contract and sell the property to turn a profit.  After his second-ever deal went badly and he pulled out of it, Vee and his business partner bought a house to flip themselves.  Ten years later, Vee is interested in out-of-state investing.  Looking ahead, Vee wants to get into commercial investing, maybe with an apartment complex.  To build a team in a new market, Vee suggests doing a lot of research about job growth, population growth, and other data about the area to identify where to search for properties.  You can determine comparable rent in the area by asking other property managers in the area, going to Zillow.com, or RentOMeter.com.   Another option for getting to know an area is to do “mystery shopping,” by calling numbers on for sale signs and saying you’re an out of town buyer looking to move to the area.  People who are interested in investing in real estate but who don’t have a lot of time to wait on the market or shop around because they’re nearing retirement, Vee suggests finding a business partner.  Another option is a tax lien certificate where the government is your debt collector, but it requires a property where someone has defaulted on their property tax.  Vee’s podcast, Real Estate Lab, aims to give you the information you need about real estate investing to earn enough to quit your job.  3 KEY POINTS: Vee met his coach and others who helped him in his career—including Erik—through networking alone.  Out-of-state investing is great because if you make a mistake, it is potentially a smaller financial risk.  Figure out how much cash flow you need and profit you need to make from a property as your baseline so you can determine what deals are a good fit for you.  TWEETABLE QUOTES: “I was young at that point. I was young and stupid. I didn’t care. I didn’t have anything in the back of mind that this was not going to work. I knew it was gonna work because we bought it cheap, we knew the number, we had our mentor, there was no way that I could be wrong.” –Vee Khuu “You can live in SoCal and invest elsewhere. You can go to Detroit, buy a $20-30,000 house and get in $800-900 rent per month. Or you can go to Memphis, same thing. Those are towns you may not want to go in, but people live there. People have jobs there and they need to rent somewhere.” –Vee Khuu “If you want to invest in real estate, I would say invest for cash flow and be an investor not a speculator. You do not want to speculate because you will lose a lot faster than you will win.” –Vee Khuu RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Find Vee Khuu on Facebook, Instagram Listen to Real Estate Lab Podcast

OVERVIEW: Erik shares a story about a mentor of his who shared the stages of why people are successful and also why they fail. Most people become successful and do not know why, which keeps them from having continued success. Others also do not understand why they fail. Erik shares a personal story relating to his health and fitness journey of success and failure.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: The 10 stages of Winning  Failure (we try something and it does not happen because we have to learn)  Blame (as a result of the failure we may blame people, places and circumstances)  Doubt (do not trust that things will work out or that it is “meant to be”)  Realize (we then realize that people do not care about our problems because they have their own)  Survive (we decide to just show up and make something happen, but we are not winning yet)  Hope (it is the belief that comes from the inside that things will happen)  Focus (we decide what to do next and have a sense of direction toward a goal)  Positive (we are excited and have the emotional attachment and need the fuel long-term)  Win (reach the target we set out to accomplish)  Complacent (Biggest challenge for repeated success is the lack of a new vision)  KEY POINT: It is seen with sports many times where a team wins a championship but does not make the playoffs the next year. The example of a team with continued success is the New England Patriots as they look forward instead of looking back. We can use the stages to see where we are in our health, finances and all aspects of our lives and there are times when we can go backwards from stage 7, Focus to Failure, depending on how we respond to circumstances. Use this as a guide to help you.            RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

OVERVIEW: In this episode of Fitness & Finance, Aimee Carlson, entrepreneur and host of podcast, The Toxin Terminator, shares how she began her journey of eliminating toxins from her life, some useful first steps you can take today and more.   EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: What was Aimee’s upbringing like?  Aimee is a registered mechanic and worked in the petroleum and mechanic businesses, which she believes was the main source of her toxic exposures.    Aimee is not anti-medicine, but has found most doctors are only treating the symptoms you’re presenting with and not looking at you holistically or connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated symptoms.  When and how did Aimee realize her environment was harming her?  There are over 80,000 chemicals available for use in products sold in drugstores and the US has only banned the use of 9 of those chemicals; manufacturing standards in the UK and other countries are much more strict.  Pharmaceutical companies are the ones funding the approval of drugs.  It’s not realistic to eliminate all toxins from your life, so Aimee says to focus on your home because you can’t remove a toxin from the entire environment.  A first step would be to address your water sources; if you can’t afford to get a whole-home filtration system, Aimee suggests a shower head filter as a starting point.  Aimee suggests using lemon—this can be used to rinse your fruits and vegetables because it helps remove dirt, and it supports your liver and kidney function—but if you have frequent UTIs, lemon can make that issue worse.  Aimee also loves apple cider vinegar.  The number one thing is to remove anything with added fragrance from your home—unscented isn’t good enough, it should say fragrance-free.  Aimee also recommends getting rid of products that include parabens, phthalates, and sodium laurel sulfate.  Bioaccumulation can lead to toxic overload, which presents as very broad symptoms like fatigue, sleeping poorly, skin sensitivity and rashes, headaches, gut issues, etc.  Some solutions are pretty immediate, and some solutions take more time, because your body didn’t end up in a chronic disease state overnight.  Aimee is introducing a new segment on her show called First Steps, where a listener will come on air and share what they’re struggling with, Aimee will give them 1-2 changes to commit to making for the next 30 days, and then they’ll come back on air to share how those changes have affected their lives.   3 KEY POINTS: The American healthcare system is reactionary, not proactive, and often treats symptoms and not the whole person.  You have to do your research to determine products safe for your home, where you can control most of the toxins you expose yourself to.  You can decide how far you want to go with it, but even taking a few small steps towards reducing the chemicals and toxins in your home can go a long way.  TWEETABLE QUOTES: “If it was being produced in this country, if I could buy it in a story, we live in the United States for crying out loud, we’re not a third world country, so it had to be safe. Why would I question it? Then I started finding out just because it’s sold in a store, doesn’t mean it’s safe for us.” –Aimee Carlson “The body is made to remove toxins. We remove them through our breath, we remove them through sweat, our blood removes it, our kidneys, our livers… but when we inundate it through bioaccumulation, we get into this state called toxic overload.” –Aimee Carlson  RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Visit AimeeCarlson.com Find Aimee on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube Listen to The Toxin Terminator Podcast  

OVERVIEW: Erik shares stories that have impacted him in his career, whether good or bad. He discusses a time when he was in a situation with a client and could help them but was not able to.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: The society and environment we live in is very reactive as we do not think ahead and plan long term. Most end up waiting until things happen to us in order to take action and we seem to have only a short term memory when it comes to our health and finances.   Many have not learned from what happened in 2008 because the economy is great but different problems were not solved.     KEY POINTS: Erik shares about a client he was looking to help, being a family member of a friend, and how they were looking to help her plan long term; especially being a single mother. There was a lot back and forth along with delays in taking action and unfortunately she passed away from cancer, complicating matters with the family as there was property involved forcing them to go through probate court.  On the other side, there was a story of another single parent who saw the value of taking action right away by finding the right vehicle for some money from her old 401K and set money aside for her daughter in addition to herself.            RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

OVERVIEW: In this episode of Fitness & Finance, Jason Priest, Founder of Dad Bod Health and a Registered Nurse, shares how he chose to change his pattern of bad health decisions, how nursing school led to his entrepreneurial journey, the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone and more.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: What was Jason Priest’s upbringing like?  Jason’s experiences watching his mother’s substance abuse led to his own drug addiction.    Jason ended up working in nutrition and corporate wellness because he was tired of being surrounded by death as an ICU nurse.  How did Jason going to nursing school help to get him out of the drug and rave scenes?  Working the overnight shift as a nurse—staying up all night, eating fast food, and drinking heavily—caused Jason to gain a lot of weight.  What are Jason’s “four core pillars of health” and where should you start?  As Jason started working out again, it was the power of the fitness community that kept him going with accountability and encouragement.  No one has motivation when they first start to work out; you have to create it yourself.  To get past a fitness plateau, realize that a huge portion of the changes your body is experiencing is your internal health, not your external appearance.  Don’t become complacent with your current routine; always strive to step outside your comfort zone.  Jason began his business as a private coach, but realized he wanted to help more people than he was able to privately, so he started the Man Up Community.     KEY POINTS: Wellness isn’t only about fitness, but also about your nutrition, sleep, and stress management.  A commitment to your health comes before motivation does, so keep going.      Accountability and community have been Jason’s biggest motivators in his health and wellness journey.  TWEETABLE QUOTES: “I never really liked school, and I didn’t want to commit to something for 4 years or 8 years that I didn’t have the heart for. This was way before I even thought about starting a business.” –Jason Priest “I’m big on what I consider the 4 core pillars of health. I’m a big proponent of dialing in your sleep and getting a strict sleep schedule, and then dialing in your stress management…If you prioritize those two things first, the path becomes much easier.” –Jason Priest  RESOURCES MENTIONED:  Schedule a time to talk with Erik. Find Erik on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Visit the The Man Up Community website Visit the Dad Bod Health website Find Jason Priest on Facebook & Instagram