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Ed and Amanda Smith on Leadership, Community, and Health: PYP 198

Ed and Amanda Smith are the co-founders of Healthfest, a three-day annual event in a small Texas town that's become an unlikely hub of plant-based nutrition in the United States.

Marshall, Texas, population 27,000, is smack in the middle of the “stroke belt.” Where beef is king, hunting is a rite of passage into manhood, and if it ain't deep-fried, it ain't food.

And there, where Ed served as mayor, is where they decided to bring plant-based knowledge and practice.

Today, Healthfest is one of the premier plant-based events in the world. People come from all 50 states and around the world to participate in the festival, which features prominent scientists, medical professionals, celebrity chefs, and inspirational ordinary folks who have transformed themselves through healthy living.

I got on the phone with Ed and Mandy with two goals in mind:

  1. I wanted to find out how they pulled it off, against what seemed to me to be steep odds
  2. I wanted to wrangle an invitation to this year's Healthfest, scheduled for March 31-April 1, 2017

You'll have to listen to see how I did.

But you can get a 10% discount if you register at Healthfest.com with the promo code PLANTYOURSELF.

And to be clear, I don't get an affiliate commission from that transaction. I'm just happy having my own promo code 🙂

In our conversation, we covered:

  • how Ed and Mandy discovered plant-based nutrition
  • Ed's complete dietary shift 2/3 of the way through The China Study: “meat and potatoes to vegan overnight”
  • “my friends looked fit and healthy, but they were dropping dead of heart attacks”
  • the prostate cancer conveyer belt of bullshit (my word; Ed and Many are far too classy to use language like that 😉
  • meeting Dr Neal Barnard and getting involved in PCRM
  • modeling Rip's Engine 2 Immersion in Marshall
  • growing from Get Healthy Marshall to Healthfest
  • growing pains and mistakes
  • the nature of leadership and service
  • “people thought we'd lost our minds”
  • how inspiring Josh LaJaunie is (and they didn't even know that we're biz partners and writing a book together – they just volunteered that perspective!)
  • pushback from the medical community
  • how and when to stick to your principles, and when to compromise to keep things moving forward
  • how to keep ticket prices low, even when bringing in expensive talent
  • this year's Healthfest – structure and why you should go
  • how to start your own “Get Healthy {Your City's Name Here}”
  • and much more…

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

Healthfest.com – use coupon code PLANTYOURSELF to score a 10% discount (I don't get any money if you do this)

Get Healthy Marshall – community website

TheMarshallPlanMovie.com – a documentary about the Smith's initiatives

VegWorldMagazine.com

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Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons
– Kim Harrison
– Lynn McLellan
– Anthony Dissen
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– Dominic Marro
– Barbara Whitney
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– Amanda Hatherly
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– Melissa Cobb
– Rachel Behrens
– Christine Nielsen
– Tina Scharf
– Tina Ahern
– Jen Vilkinofsky
– David Byczek
– Michele X
– Elspeth Feldman
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– Leah Stolar
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– Colleen Peck
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for your generous support of the podcast.

Announcements

This month's goody giveaway, to entice you to subscribe to my most excellent Big Change Bulldog, is the Sometimes Say Never report. It will show you how to stop bingeing and torturing yourself with foods you can't live with and can't live without.

Go here to get the report for absolutely zero dollars. Offer ends on February 28, 2017, at 11:59:59pm EST. Yes, I'll be on my computer, finger hovering over the “No More Report for You” button. Am. Not. Bluffing.

Ready to embark on your Big Change journey?

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Join the Plant Yourself mailing list (top right of this page) to learn more, and to get notified about the next Bobsled Run of the program.

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Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive amazon gift certificates from your actions on such links.

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

 

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.

1 comment on “Ed and Amanda Smith on Leadership, Community, and Health: PYP 198”

  1. Pingback: HealthFest Highlights – Tri to be Funny

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Hi, I’m Howard Jacobson, host of the Plant Yourself Podcast, co-author of You Can Change Other People and Sick to Fit, and co-founder of WellStart Health Coach Academy.

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