Functional Medicine Entrepreneurship and Wholistic Wellness - Dr. Christine Manukyan

“You have to do the inner work first, before you start creating everything else and taking that daily and consistent, messy action every single day to get one step closer to where you want to go.” - Dr. Christine Manukyan, STORRIE Institute

Overview:

We talk with Dr. Christine Manukyan, PharmD, about her path to entrepreneurship as a Functional Medicine practitioner and how she helps others follow the same path.

Above all else, Dr. Christine wants to instill an entrepreneurial mindset and skill set in her students, so they can access and serve clients in a virtual world while taking charge of their financial futures.

Dr. Christine Manukyan is a PharmD, Wholistic Wellness Coach™, Certified Breathwork Practitioner, 4x bestselling author, and host of the top-ranked STORRIE™ Podcast. Dr. Christine is launching a new arm of her STORRIE Institute called STORRIE Wellness, featuring a brand-new Wholistic Weight Loss program.

She is pioneering the field of holistic health, leading the Wholistic Wellness™ Revolution, and creating the new gold standard of care. A former hospital pharmacist, she decided to take a leap of faith in 2015, leaving Corporate America to pursue her passions. She started STORRIE Institute™ in 2020 (formerly called the Functional Medicine Business Academy™) to provide other clinicians with a financially viable, legally sound approach to offering holistic services, without compromising or overshadowing their medical, health, or wellness training.

Summary:

0:01- Introduction of today’s guest Dr. Christine Manukyan.

1:12 - How she started running.

5:04 - Be brave and courageous and just do it.

10:20 - The importance of making decisions every single day.

15:36 - The mission and mission of the STORRIE Institute.

21:28 - How to become a holistic wellness coach.

25:36 - What is your vision for the future of holistic wellness?

30:07 - The launch of the STORRIE Wellness Institute.

35:02 - Corporate Wellness and Mental Health.

41:01 - What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

45:11 - Knowing who you are and what excites you.

Transcript:

Jennifer Wenzel 0:01

Hello everybody and welcome to the latest Root Cause Marketing business webinar series. Today we are so excited to welcome Dr. Christine Manukyan, who is a PharmD, a holistic wellness coach, a certified breathwork practitioner, a four-time best selling author, and host of the top ranked STORRIE podcast. In 2007, Dr. Christine graduated from pharmacy school, entered the world of hospital pharmacy, but she saw the clinicians all around her feeling burned out unfulfilled and struggling to believe in the solutions they were providing. So in 2015, she took a leap of faith, she left corporate America and started what was then called the Functional Medicine Business Academy, now the STORRIE Institute in 2020, and she provides other practitioners with a financially viable, legally sound approach to offering holistic services without compromising or overshadowing your medical health or wellness training. And Dr. Christine, above all else, wants to instill an entrepreneurial mindset and skill set in her students so they can access and serve clients in this virtual world we live in while taking charge of their financial futures. Welcome, Dr. Christine!

Dr. Christine Manukyan 1:12

Thank you so much. And it's such an honor to be here with you ladies. And I'm also going to make sure I don't misspeak. But I started the entire brand in 2015. But I did not leave corporate till 2020. So I want to make sure that it's clear. I was one of those crazy wild people that left a very stable position in a top ranked hospital here in California to pursue what her heart and passion is, which is entrepreneurship and functional medicine. So that all happens in, you know, 2020. So I just wanted to make sure that's correct.

Landy Miyake 1:52

Absolutely. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah. I mean, it's Oh, man, what an introduction. And what an honor to have you here with us today. We're so excited. Before we dive into all of our entrepreneurial discussion here, I just want to highlight and congratulate you for your most recent marathon that you finished in California. And just if you want to share a little bit more about that experience, it sounds like that wasn't something you had 100% trained for. So tell us a little bit about that.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 2:25

Absolutely. There's always a story behind the story. So I started my health transformation journey, as we mentioned early in 2015. And losing 100 pounds. I started doing bodybuilding as my first sports to attempt when I was 37. And after that, I was like bodybuilding is fun, but I'm gonna challenge myself, I'm always you know, thinking what's next? How can I elevate my performance? So what was next was like to start running. I was not a runner, it asked me to run the mile, but like, You must be kidding me. So there was a whole stretching that happened for me as I was growing from bodybuilding to my weight loss journey to running. So I took my first few steps, my first 5k in 2017. And then, and then my first 10k in 2018. And then I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna train for a marathon, you guys, I'm going big. And my friends are like, Oh, can you please run a half a marathon before you commit to the big goal. I'm like, no, like, I'm training for a big marathon for my 40th birthday, which was in 2020. And that was my first experience tapping into this running and marathon training and actually completed my first marathon March 8 of 2020. And the following day, the world shut down, like literally the following day, the world was like, this pandemic is happening. And what happened was, I took like, literally two years off, and like many people, you know, just doing what we could at home, you know, running was not like, I just did not enjoy that anymore. Like doing this outside with a mouse it was just like not happening. So I literally took a two year break till last year, I said I need to get back to running. And last year in September, I committed to the LA Marathon, which is actually scheduled in 10 days in March. And so as we're doing our training for the marathon, which is a six month training, I decided to actually throw in another marathon in between, because I was like, why not? I'm trained, you know, somehow, but not really, but I'm just gonna do it anyway. And it really helped me to test my mental strength. It's all about the mindset. It's like one step at a time one step at a time to get to the finish line and cross the finish line. And yes, I completed my unplanned marathon while I'm training for a marathon, which is about to happen in a week. And it's been a journey to think of how much we're capable of doing. And we just have to give ourselves permission to give it a try.

Landy Miyake 5:10

Wow, that's so awesome. I love everything about that. And I think it's a really actually great intro to more of what we'll be talking about today. I mean, in that STORRIE, so many themes, you know, emerged for me and one was just be brave and be courageous. And just just do it, just do something, you know, putting that action into place, and literally, like you said, taking one step at a time. So if you can tell us a little bit more about how you have, you know, parlayed your, you know, career courageousness, and your, I don't even know what the word is done, or for help me here. Just being very proactive and taking not taking that action, without, you know, knowing everything and just diving right in.

Jennifer Wenzel 6:12

A leap of faith.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 6:15

Oh, my gosh, there's so many different stories and parts I can share. But I'm going to start with this conversation first. Here in our profession, especially in our clinical profession, which many of your listeners are, we are kind of brainwashed to make decisions, meaning like, we are not empowered to be decisive. And one of the most crucial life changing skills that you have to develop is to make decisions. Any decision is a good decision, because you just made a decision, I can decide today that I'm going to drink lemon water four liters a day, six liters a day, because I have decided, right? So in and again, I'm tying this back into clinicians. Because I myself, I'm a clinician. I've been trained as a clinician, but we're living in a society where, like, you have to doubt yourself, you have to question a million times before you say something. Because our logical mind is like, what if I hurt someone? What if this decision is not the best one for my patient? What if what if, what if, and we'll just stick with the guidelines on the protocols and the textbook material that was written years ago, to make decisions. And we always have to go ask someone else, our boss and the boss's boss before we say something and do something. So this, this has been conditioned in our DNA that making decisions is hard. Making decisions is not the best way to live your life? Because you know, what, if you fail? Well, I had to challenge that because for me to change my life, I had to decide, I had to decide that I no longer want to be a morbidly obese were high cholesterol with, you know, insomnia and stress and just being like a hot mess mom, who was told she is going to have a heart attack, by the time she turns 40, because of the condition that my health was declining. I had to decide I want to be alive and thrive when I'm in my 40s and 50s, and 60s and 70s and 80s, because of my family. So I had to make that big decision of like, enough is enough. I don't know what this path is gonna look like, I have no idea what I'm gonna do. But I knew something had to change. I knew there's a better way to heal my body, there's a better way to experience growth, right? And I had to make that in my center. Like, Christina, you just have to make a decision.

Jennifer Wenzel 8:53

Yeah, I think I've heard people say leap, and either, you know, build your wings as you fall or while leaping, the net will appear.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 9:03

Yes, that's what I preach. And that's what I tell all of my clinicians inside STORRIE Institute. Messy, inspired action is better than no action. Right? There's someone else doing things that you've dreamt about doing because they took action. Again, I decided I wanted to run the marathon. And now, like years later, I can decide to run the marathon. And do that with ease. Because I've done that already. It's like what's next? Right? It really helps your body to condition yourself saying, I just trust myself. And any decisions that I make are going to help me serve and there's lessons that I'm going to learn along the way, right? There's always lessons you're going to learn. And if you don't take action based on what you've done, and what you've learned, you're just gonna repeat the same old STORRIE years after years and be like why am I still where I am right now. So I hope this answers your question. I can talk hours and hours about it, but again, it was all about making that decision. Like, I don't want to become a statistic because those are the words that came out of my doctor's mouth. Like you're gonna have a heart attack, you're gonna die in the next five years of like, no, like, no, and I'm not gonna take a pill and pharmacists who don't like to take pills? I'm like, No, I'm gonna figure out a way, and the universe will deliver which happens. That's how I found functional medicine.

Landy Miyake 10:24

Yeah, I love that. And you make it sound so, so easy, you know, just to to decide and to make that decision. But we all know that it's a very simple concept. But it's very hard to make that decision. So where do you think that you sort of get that trust in yourself to be able to make these decisions? And how do you coach other functional medicine providers who may not have such a really good sense of trust for themselves, as they're learning to just decide so that they can move forward?

Dr. Christine Manukyan 11:12

Oh, my gosh, beautiful. Yes. I love talking about this. Mindset is everything, you know, whether it's deciding to do X, Y, and Z mindset is everything right? And yes, I didn't wake up one day and have all this, like, magically, you know, power, you know, super power in me. But it always goes, it goes down to like, why are you doing this? Right? And a lot of times we forget this powerful, you know, why? Like, why did I want to lose weight? Why? And I had to ask myself that five times. And you know, this is kind of tagging into, like, how do I coach all of our clinicians inside our tribe of like, ask yourself, why five times? The first layer, just the most obvious one, I just want to lose weight because I'm morbidly obese. The second level of why how's that going to help me - why, why, why, why, why all the way down. And, you will be surprised. I like the way you started, which is not the way you end up with because you have to ask this deep, deep, deep, like, level of like, why, and my biggest why, at the end, you know, after I did that exercise to myself, at that time was like, I don't want my daughter to grow up feeling insecure in her own body, you see how it was not about the weight loss anymore, it went into my child, you know, she was three years old, at that time, two and a half years old. Because I'm already thinking of her, I don't want to be that role model for her. So again, if we just stay in, like, I just want to lose weight, and your wife is not strong enough, you just gonna give up, you're gonna start paying attention to what everyone thinks of you, people are gonna start judging by the way, they're gonna judge you no matter what. Right? You know, and just knowing that you have a bigger purpose and living knowing that your why is so strong will help you to make those decisions every single day. And consistency is a key. It's not like one day, we're going to wake up and be like, I'm gonna brush my teeth today. But tomorrow, I'm not so sure about it because it's raining today. And I don't know if I should do that. No, this becomes consistency, consistent daily action, right helps you decide and make those better choices every single day. And this is how I lead inside our you know, group of like, you guys just take action, and stop being such a perfectionist because that will kill your dreams. Again, I quit my job from Cedar Sinai, which is one of the top hospitals here in Beverly Hills, my career that I have for 12 years, my reputation, I put everything aside my salary. But I took that messy action to quit my job because I had a bigger vision and had a bigger purpose in life. I'm like, I need to do more. I'm not meant to be here. I meant to be here. I need to be bringing functional medicine, holistic wellness to millions of lives around the world. I should be and I will be and I am leading this whole functional medicine revolution to train clinicians how to go from a practitioner to holistic wellness coach, because this is the best standard of care. So again, I had to go deep like why am I so expired, inspired. And when you do this five layers of you know deep, why, you know, thinking like, you will get up and be like, This is why I'm gonna do this and everything else just seems easy. And I know many of you like this is not the first time I didn't come up with the ads, right? But I borrowed that concept from a seminar. I listened to a podcast, I listened like I needed to do this. And it always goes back to like, are you taking action based on things that you learned? A lot of people will know like, oh yeah, I gotta do this. I gotta do that, but they're not applying their knowledge. And this is where I disagree that you know, knowledge is power. Knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is power, taking action of what you're learning. is power. So again, I learned from someone that five levels deep “why” will change your life and I had to apply that in my life. And that's when I had to decide, I'm going to change my health story, I'm gonna change my story, I'm gonna rewrite my story. Because my why was so deep, I did not want my daughter to grow up kind of like not feeling secure in her own body. I was like, No, that's not the mom I want to be. And it was a beautiful sentiment, I get - I can get very philosophical, it's not the right word. But yeah, it always goes down to like, why you're doing like what, like why.

Jennifer Wenzel 15:35

So you brought up the training that you do for clinicians to help them change their paradigm entirely to do something completely different with their lives. And this is our honestly, Landy and I our skills, our marketing, so that's why but our mission is the same as yours, Dr. Christine, to bring functional medicine to so many more people, our mission as a marketing company is literally to have functional medicine, be the paradigm of modern day health, this is what we want healthcare to be across America and across the world. So that's what we work towards. So tell us about the STORRIE Institute and about the programs and the entrepreneurial motivation that you bring and provide to people who are feeling really stuck and want to do something more and better with their lives.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 16:25

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, just to be clear STORRIE Institute, was born after like, I don't know, like 4-5 years, four or five years of trial and error, trial and error, keep trying one thing and changing it up till changing it up. And I really trusted my intuition. You know, I do breath work. I'm a breathwork practitioner, I also teach that to our practitioners, and trusting my breath, like letting my breath to be my guide, there's so much inside us. But if we don't happen to do it, you're not going to know what is possible what you're going to create. So sorry, Institute was born based on breath work based on doing a lot of that inner work. And then will you see it from outside is this company who is empowering clinicians and coaches to become holistic wellness coaches? Again, in the past, I used to call ourselves a functional medicine specialist, but I realized whole health is not just functional medicine. There's so much more to that. And if you guys go to our website, you will see a beautiful diagram. Yes, it is beautiful, it is sexy. And this beautiful diagram says, you know, holistic wellness. What does that mean? It's a whole body health. That's where the W comes from, with wholistic principles. And in our STORRIE Institute, holistic wellness is a practice of returning to our natural state of health by adapting a lifestyle that supports our body's innate ability to heal and thrive. And holistic wellness includes functional medicine includes nutrition includes energy healing includes Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, there's all these different modalities as represented in that diagram, which again, I came up with during my breath. But what does this mean? And functional medicine is one of the bubbles in there, right? And what we do is that our tribe is like, we want to become the clinician who is going to really give our, you know, clients, our patients options, okay? Yes, functional medicine is the core, this is where we do a lot of lab testing and all that. But we kind of look at the person as a whole, what drives them? What support do they need from us? You know, if you're watching me live, you see a bunch of energy walls behind me. I'm a certified, you know, sound bowl healer as well, too. But again, like, you know, what, if that's the only tool my client needs, right, the energy healing, let me provide that to them. Or maybe they need nutrition, let me provide that to them. So you really understand how you can support your client and either yourself or the network of clinicians you can refer them to. I'm huge on reference, referring people. But again, in our Institute, we are getting you, you know, the path to entrepreneurship, the path of creating your own wellness practice, the path to creating your own legacy, and as a holistic wellness space by becoming a holistic wellness coach. And our certification program, like any other school, like IFM, there's so many amazing schools that have also been part of by the way, have three of them I just mentioned, because I know there has to be a different way we approach this category. And you know, that our story is to tell again, our clinicians have to be clinician or health coach. This is not where you come to become a health coach and a clinician, you have to have a degree to support that. So we're taking your degree to the next level. And we are really bringing into everything that you need from the mindset entrepreneurship, you know, this energetics of entrepreneurship, which is something that my company is also known for, you know, to bring the Is vision How can you as a clinician, get monetized for the skills that you already have inside you, but you just didn't know it's in there? Okay, you just didn't know this is even an opportunity for you to learn and grow and create.

And one of my big, big, big, big visions is as I do all this incredible trainings, and, you know, we've had over like 80 clinicians go through our programs from different backgrounds, you know, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pharmacists, students, even while they're still in school, chiropractors, like, you name it, different clinicians from different backgrounds, for them to also become a voice for corporate America, for them to become a voice for employee wellness, so not just, you know, serving one on one clients in their programs, but as like, how can we go and, you know, have this ripple effect to more people. And that's one of my biggest visions is as we are growing, we are going to become a resource for big companies to hire us and our clinicians to provide the services. So all the employees that work there, they have benefits, it's actually beneficial to their health, right? So the vision will grow. But to answer your question, short way, you can say I'm very passionate about this is to really help people understand clinicians understand they're meant for more, there are so many tools and resources they already have inside them, it just that they have not been put in the right, you know, environment to thrive. And so this is what STORRIE Institute comes in. You mentioned, we had book publications you guys can see behind us. We have, you know, three best selling books, we're about to start writing our fourth one, as part of our C series, how are practitioners going from the corporate world to entrepreneurship as a holistic wellness coach. So I cannot wait to see the next growth, the next chapter of our own story. Hence, where we're going, where we are leading and this movement that we have created. And it all started with that one decision for me to quit my job and to pursue what my burning desire was to bring this to the world like you ladies.

Landy Miyake 22:07

Yeah, that's, it's so inspiring and exciting to hear that again, you know, that simple concept of just one decision can truly change your life and thousands - millions - because I know that's one of your goals, right? To transform over a million practitioners and bring them into this functional medicine, holistic, truly holistic type of medicine. So my question for you is, in your institute, do you provide as far as those different modalities that you mentioned, you know, the nutrition versus energy healing, things like that? Are you offering in house like all of those different modalities?

Dr. Christine Manukyan 22:58

Yeah. So we are growing, right, we are definitely growing and the last last year or so I personally went into like really kind of heavy on the energy healing part with the breath work with all the certifications, I'm getting trained in reiki and all this, like woo woo stuff that a lot of people do. So that will definitely be the branch that I run myself. But to answer your question, yes, our clinicians are exposed to all of those. I'm also currently taking classes to become a certified Ayurvedic nutritionist or nutrition coach, I need to look at the official title, what the heck I just signed up for. But yes, we are, you know, growing and bringing, you know, experts from different places, different parts of this diagram that I just mentioned, to teach inside our tribe. Again, they're getting the exposure, but again, I'm always big on if they need to, if this is something that they really are excited about, then go to another established, let's say, a school or something that or program that specifically talks about that. But they're all exposed to the entire we'll have different ways of training. And we're not just going deep, it's just not possible to do that in a 12 month program, right? There's just so much that we can cover but everyone is exposed to all the different modalities. And I help them and guide them and by like, hey, if someone is really interested in nutrition, here's a school I can recommend. Here's a program I can recommend. Here's a mentor recommendation, but they're exposed to the foundational work, if that makes sense. And you know, we live in this beautiful society when there's so many free resources that's available to us, right. So if someone is really really interested, let's say, you know, Chinese medicine or herbalism, right? There's so much resources already they can go follow the gurus and the world and learn from them. Right. I'm all about reiki, we collaborate, but again, they're exposed only like I can do this, Hey, I can bring this tool to my wellness practice. This makes me unique. This makes my practice different. This makes me stand out from any other practitioner, right? Again, having everyone have their own uniqueness and their niche by being exposed to all of those, you know, bubbles that I call inside our tribe. But just physically, it's not enough time to go deep in that.

But you asked the question - I'm gonna answer and this is actually the first time I'm publicly announcing this outside of our outside of our tribe. Should I or should I not? Oh, what the heck, right? Well, so yes, my intuition is telling me I'm gonna tell you guys this. So I have very big goals, okay, is to create a brand new doctorate program, a brand new category as a holistic wellness doctor or diplomate. Because this entire space is not regulated, there's, it's a little bit of a shift, very straight talk like it’s up to one person, like, oh, I can legally do this, the other person I cannot. It's, it's a shitshow it's like can I? I was like, yes, you can. Yes, you can. But my vision is to actually create a brand new category of diploma or a doctorate program for holistic wellness, that will cover all that that will tell people like this is how you do it. This is how you practice, this is how you can maintain your license, your certification, whatever we end up calling it, right. And my big, big vision is also to have an actual physical school. And amazing locations! We are probably going to be, you know, in California, by the mountains by the ocean, to have an actual school and each faculty will be the specialists to train, functional medicine, nutrition, herbalism, Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, so we'll have faculty specifically for that. So again, our clinicians will be exposed to everything and when they're due for their rotation so to go experience this wondrous place in the world, I'm going to send them out of the United States because I just face it, this is not the best place to be in for so many modalities.

I want, you know, as they’re going through the program, like on their last year of internship, you know, the different places that there was just came back from Bali, let them go to Bali, experience energy healing, let them go to China, let them go to India, let them go and experience all that from the, you know, the people who've done this for centuries.

Jennifer Wenzel 28:17

Nepal, too. Yeah, or areas in South America where there's so much ancient wisdom of roots and mountain herbals. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 28:31

We don't have to, again, limit what we have access to here in the States. Don't get me wrong. We have brilliant people here. But we need to go back like again, what's the root cause of those people becoming where they are right now? And again, like I haven't shared this publicly and probably my lawyer is gonna be like, Why did you open your mouth and share that? But you know what, I'm the reason I'm sharing this is because number one, I am called to sharing this vision. And I know I cannot do this alone. I know it is going to take a tribe of clinicians who'll be like, Heck yeah, let's go let's do that. Let's create this. And I know you know, smart people will come into my life, they'll show me that how, how to actually open up actual freaking school like in person school, like, who am I? Am I the dean? Am I the owner? Am I - right? Like, all those things, I don't know. And I'm okay with that. But I know what I'm, I just have to survive the process because people who have those skill sets will come but like, I want to support your vision. I want to support your mission like, Hey, there's this really nice like five acres of lands, you know, I can start like creating, you know, this bidding war to like get the land because it really matches where you want to create the Zen school and, you know, how we teach and how we practice like it has to be changed, like, where we are right now. It's not, you know, my kids like they have to have a better way of learning and studying and experiencing life in general. It's outside of the textbooks and the, you know, the classrooms - they have to go and explore.

Landy Miyake 30:07

Wow, yeah, look at that special announcement. That is awesome. See, but you just manifested it now. So now the universe is gonna get to work and bring the right people into your, into your life with which I want to mention, Jennifer and I have a couple projects brewing ourselves, I was just wondering if we were going to spill the beans, because we are in the very early stages of this. But we are working on a couple of things that I, you know, I definitely would like to visit with you, I think it's very much in line with your vision of collaboration, and, you know, finding your tribe and finding those people who believe the same things that want a better way. And I think that we've got some really great ideas. So we would love to visit with you off of this webinar and see if we can possibly help each other out in that regard, too.

Jennifer Wenzel 31:16

We have some big plans for building community and building greater access to functional medicine and holistic health care overall. So we're really excited about some of our future plans, too.

Landy Miyake 31:29

So that's, yeah, that's really exciting. Really, really exciting. And truly, yeah, I feel so honored we’re the first ones to know. She's a true pioneer. She's a true pioneer and leader in this arena. And we're just so grateful to have you.

Jennifer Wenzel 31:54

So I just wanted to ask a little bit, because I know you just opened up a brand new segment of the STORRIE Institute, too. I mean, this literally just happened within the last week. Right? Can you tell us a little bit about your expansion?

Dr. Christine Manukyan 32:06

Oh, my gosh, absolutely. So um, I want you everyone to kind of understand what the heck we're like, why STORRIE keeps coming up. And there's like all these different branches. So my main company is STORRIE, and it's uniquely spelled, because to me, we're all unique. And we all have our own story to share. And we all also deserve a second chance to rewrite our story to become the best version of ourselves. That's where the name came from. And also, we all deserve to not be explaining and justifying, you know, things that we do in life because of the stigma that people might have around us. So like us to really own the truth of who we are. So that's the STORRIE Brands. Inside the STORRIE brand, obviously, there's my personal brand, Dr. Christine Manukyan. And then there’s STORRIE Institute, which is our education - think of it as our educational umbrella part of our company. In STORRIE Wellness, well, what we’re talking about is our clinical services section. So STORRIE Wellness officially launched last week on March 2, and my main vision for this wellness practice is, like I was talking about earlier, is to go into corporate wellness. We have all these incredible clinicians who are which we're going to reveal who's going to be part of our team to go in to really work with big corporations, we're definitely going to start the with our hospital setting because a lot of myself and my clinicians, that's our backgrounds, and so how can we bring good corporate employees on this tools and those visions that we already have? So STORRIE Wellness is our, you know, clinical services, I'm saying clinical, because that's what that is. But these are all clinicians who have been trained from STORRIE Institute so they can actually practice.

And again, this vision came to me not only from like, you know, from an entrepreneur perspective, but I'm also big on like, How can I support my tribe to thrive, and what I realized after mentoring, like at some clinicians, not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, not everyone wants to have their own business. Not everyone wants to do their own marketing and have their own, you know, brands. But I know one thing that is common, everyone wants to help someone with holistic health and functional medicine. So I was like, let me create a space for you all to practice in.

So that's where STORRIE Wellness came from. It was also born based on how can I serve my clinicians better? How can I provide them resources where they are waking up every single day knowing like they're making a difference and they're making an impact in the world and they don't have to worry about all the logistics what it means to be an entrepreneur because again, not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, but everyone wants to make an impact in the world. So again, STORRIE Wellness is a brand new branch of our big company STORRIE and is definitely something that is going to grow. We just launched at the end of last week. For now what we're offering is lab testings, a hair tissue mineral analysis testing, we also have a group program that's going to be launching later on this month, holistic weight loss. This is a seven week at our weight loss program, not your traditional weight loss. This is where each week I will be tapping into all the seven different chakras and how to help you to block certain blocks that you've had to aid in your weight loss journey. So this is a whole very woo woo way of looking into weight loss. Again, it's gonna be epic, and there's no one else that does what we're about to launch. So again, we will be launching smaller group programs as well. But my big vision is to take these modalities to the corporate wellness, and to really become that new gold standard of care for not only for us as human beings, but also become a non negotiable for the CFO, the HR department, every, you know, company who has employees like, Yes, this is where the money is gonna go. And this is how HR is going to support them as part of the benefit program. That's my vision.

Jennifer Wenzel 36:12

I love that! I actually worked for 7 years for the largest county in Minnesota, Hennepin County where Minneapolis is, for the Public Health Promotion Department. So yes, we were all about workplace health, school health and community health. And I tell you what, I will be letting some of my former colleagues know about your wellness branch now, because they're always looking for new and unique ways to get corporate wellness, more entrenched in the community stuff. That's wonderful.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 36:40

Definitely corporate wellness. And also, you know, one of our biggest niches is going to be mental health. And, again, I've been doing so much research and so much like going down, like, all these things are coming up. But one thing as an employer, you know, Gen Z's are our new workforce in the next couple of years. And they're very specific about who they want to work for. And they're all aligned with a bigger vision. And they all are demanding not only the work life balance, but also specifically how can you support me in my mental wellness, if you don't have a structure in place to support your future employees, all those Gen Z's are about to enter the workforce, then you're missing out as an employer, you're not going to have staff, you're not going to have people who will, you'll retain, you will lose money on the back end. Because you know, hiring and quitting is like, ongoing thing, you're not gonna be the company that people want to work for. So yeah, mental wellness is definitely something that we are very passionate about. And you know, like when you have a big vision that people show up. And, you know, one of the first places we're going to work towards is all the VAs. Personally, we have three, four clinicians who either work at VA, or they're also vet themselves. And I'm like, Let's go support them. Right. So again, it always takes a visionary like myself to collaborate with my integrators who take this vision forward, and, you know, make this big ripple effect. So yeah, mental wellness is definitely going to be one of our top hot top priorities in this beautiful space, and of course, myself and the breath work, which is available to all of us, only if you use it. So those are going to be our first two big projects that we're going to lead with for corporate wellness. Yeah, I'm excited.

Landy Miyake 38:44

Very cool. Yeah, starting with the VA, that is incredible. I have some experience. In my previous life. I used to be married to the military, and it is so needed in that space. And so that's just great, that you are bringing functional medicine in that way of handling that into an area that is, you know, so in desperate, desperate need of that. So that's really, really exciting to hear. And thank you for that. As a former Army spouse.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 39:37

Yeah, it's, you know, it touches everything, you know what I mean? And it also goes back to this whole stigma that I spoke about earlier as well too. And, you know, that's why, you know, my brand STORRIE was born because there's just so much stigma of us being open and sharing our story, especially when it comes to mental health. Again, like culturally, or where you are just how you're looked down at and how people see you, as a human being the minute you say something like that, right? And I just don't like it, it doesn't sit well with me. And I'm like, we got to change this. Like, we have to normalize how we talk openly and freely and ask for support. And we just have to like, again, know that, you know, that person may not be the answer to what you're looking for. But we just want someone else to listen to us. And be like, I hear you, I'm holding space for you, it's okay to talk, I have nothing to contribute to this conversation other than just to listen to you, without judgments, right, with our judgments. And that's all sometimes all we need. But we all live in a society like that. We, have to like, really stretch ourselves and be really uncomfortable to ask for help. Right?

Jennifer Wenzel 41:01

We actually just had a guest on last week on our webinar, who specializes in mental health and reducing stress on the one end, and all the way to getting very, very deeply needed mental health interventions, you know, on the deeper end, and I'm glad that we're able to kind of have these conversations more in our society now. And thank goodness for our millennial and Gen Z counterparts, who you know, can can who's bringing that new sense of it's okay, we're humans, we're bringing our human self to our lives and our world and our work. That, you know, we are opening up those channels of conversation now so people can get the help that they rightfully deserve. So Landy, I know you're going to ask something earlier, when I was asking Dr. Christine, about the Institute and STORRIE Wellness. I'm hoping you remember what it was?

Landy Miyake 41:54

Oh, yes, I just wanted to learn, you know, you did have a wonderful point earlier, and that all of the, you know, clinicians who come to the STORRIE Institute, not all of them desire to be entrepreneurs, not all of them desire to open up their own business. But for the sake of our audience, who are functional medicine providers who are in private practice, can you tell us, without, you know, giving us too much detail, but can you tell us a little bit more about, you know, those business type of courses that you offer there at the STORRIE Institute?

Dr. Christine Manukyan 42:34

Yeah. And again, business has a little bit of a bad rap. Because, you know, again, this is how our society has trained us. Being a business owner is hard. Being a business owner, you have to be in so much debt. Again, there's all this pressure, right. And also, there's a mis communication of what truly happens when a business is thriving, when entrepreneurs are actually thriving, because, you know, a lot of people don't show the behind the scenes and all they show on social media is the glamor, the time freedom and then traveling, but they're not showing like, Hey, I was up till like 2 am, working on XY and Z because I had, you know, company to launch right, but they're seeing the glamor. So again, a lot of people are confused about what does that really mean to be a business owner? What does that really mean to become an entrepreneur? Right? And a lot of people don't understand again, what do they really want? Because they haven't been asked this question like, why do you want to start your business? How do you want to run a business? What type of leader you want to become, right? And as a lot of this has to do with who we are as a human being? Like, what's your Enneagram type? What's your Gallup strength test? What's your leadership style like? Strengths, right? These are things that shape who we are. And if you don't understand who you are, it's really hard to know that you want this because when there's that disconnect, you're not going to be happy. So again, you asked me how we support them, like we do a lot of that inner work. Because, again, entrepreneurship is not easy. Entrepreneurship is not sexy, but entrepreneurship opens up so many entrepreneurial opportunities for you, right? It opens up so many opportunities. And one of the biggest things for us is to really tap into, like, understanding who you are. I make all of my clinicians take their Enneagram test, take their Gallup strength test, and also their human design. Why? Because I want them to know who they are. So when they're building a business, it's aligned with their vision.

Jennifer Wenzel 44:46

You’re talking to a couple of psychometric assessment nerds here. Totally. So anyway, we're all about our MBTI, I’m an Enneagram 7, and my Strengthsfinder strengths are flexibility, adaptability, all those good things.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 44:59

Futurist, strategist, right, doing all this because people think this has nothing to do with the business. But again, people are not talking about this type of approach. Yes, I can show you how to make $10,000 today. But if you don't know what you're gonna do with that money, you don't know if you're ready to receive money. If you don't know how to, you know, communicate your desires to the world, you're not going to be successful. I can give you all the strategy you need today, all the marketing you need today, but you need to know who you are to receive that. And that's the big difference between again, trust me, I've invested heavily on business coaches, because I had no clue what the heck I was doing. I was new to this world, I literally just did my taxes. And just last year alone, I've invested $150,000 on mentorship, just last year alone, times that the last three years, it's insane. But again, every mentor has taught me something. And what I'm doing is I'm bringing all those modalities into what we do and how I teach business, how I teach entrepreneurship, how I teach a mindset, how I teach marketing, right? How I really teach you to become you, and everything else will unfold, versus just giving you more things to study in lectures. Like that's, that's not sexy, like doing that inner work is sexy. Understanding what drives you and what excites you will make such a huge difference. But a lot of people have it backwards. They have it backwards. They're like, Oh, give me all the marketing tools. I need all the strategies. I'm like, Yeah, but like, you're not going to be happy at the end of what you're creating, you're not going to be excited about what you're doing. Because there's that disconnect of what you're creating, versus who you are going to be in misalignment. And let me tell you, you're going to go through a burnout as an entrepreneur, and you left your job to have more time and freedom to have less burnout. Okay, so yes, not everyone, you know, understands what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Not everyone understands the sacrifices they also have to make to become an entrepreneur. And a lot of people also want quick results. Like they quit their job, they want to make money. Well, sorry, that can happen. But that's not the norm. And they're gonna shut their, you know, desires down and their vision down because they were not successful. Nobody came up to their launch, nobody watched the replay, nobody signed up for their program, because they wanted it or they heard from another mentor that yes, you could do this, you're going to be successful. No, you have no idea what the outcome is going to be. And you can only control what you can control, which is who you are not the outcome, that outcome will come but you got to control who you are. I don't think this answers your question. But the way I teach is again, doing the inner work first, before you Yes, I give you all the strategies and you know, very heavy on intuitive marketing of how again, to trust your intuition and trust your breath work, to create what you're creating, having that purpose and live and how to bring that vision into fruition. But again, you have to do the inner work first, before you start creating everything else and taking that daily and consistent, daily, consistent, messy action every single day to get one step closer to where you want to go.

Jennifer Wenzel 48:30

It sounds like the work that needs to be done in marketing to where you need to have that foundational clarity on who you are, your brand and your ideal audience before you can even start to think how am I going to get there, then, you know, social media isn't for everyone. Webinars aren't for everyone, knowing who you are, how you communicate, and the message that you want to give out to the world. That's - it sounds like we have very similar philosophies, the three of us, on how to put yourself out there in the business world.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 48:58

Yeah, and kind of going in the same way as everyone has their own unique gifts. And they just don't know how to monetize those gifts. So we're talking about social media, that's it going live and doing webinar, what if that's not your gift, maybe your gift is actually to write, then become the best writer blogger that provides value value value every single week without being on camera, become that person that people can go and rely on. They're going to receive information from you, right? So again, not everyone has to be on camera. Not everyone has to write, not everyone has to do podcasts, but we all have something that excites us. I have clinicians who don't have any social media following or presence, but they're killing it in their business because of their live presence. Because they love to do in person webinars, like in person events and live trainings because that's what they love. Yeah, it might be five people watching them in this, you know, small gathering but all five people say how can I work with you?

Jennifer Wenzel 50:04

Because they tell all their friends, because that energy just brings people in.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 50:09

Yeah, exactly what STORRIE you know, inside our tribe to like, you know, I start everyone with STORRIE methods and all the letters stand for something. Guys you can go onto my website and you can read about our approach. And letter S stands for it Starts with you. That stands for yes. And then we can go into everything else that the STORRIE is spelled out too. But there's it's an acronym, every module has its own way of like, tapping into certain things. It's all over on our website, you know, our approach and how we do stuff. But again, it starts with you like, who are you? Why do you want to do this? What's blocking you? How can we release that? Right? How can we create that safe space for you to also ask for help from your mentor myself, Hey, can you help me in XY and Z without a judgment, I'm like, Hey, you should know that. Or I talked about that, in this module now, creating that safe environment having a relationship with you know, one another to like, so you're like, I got not only the support, but also like, this is a place for me to grow. And I'm going to stretch you. And I'm really going to make you uncomfortable to do sort of things, because this is where the growth is going to happen.

Jennifer Wenzel 51:19

That sounds amazing. Thank you so much for coming on board with us today. And telling us about STORRIE Institute where clinicians can learn how to revolutionize their own practice by becoming holistic wellness coaches and STORRIE Wellness, this brand new arm of the STORRIE brand, which is now providing holistic and integrated health care to folks from all kinds of modalities, and everything else that you do, from your books to your upcoming expansion into potentially a brand new brick and mortar school in the relatively near future. You are a fascinating person to talk to Dr. Christine. Dr. Christine Manukyan here with the STORRIE brand, STORRIE Institute and STORRIE Wellness. And we are so happy to have had you today. Thank you.

Dr. Christine Manukyan 52:06

You're very welcome. Again, it's such an honor to have you ladies and I know we planned to do this webinar like a couple of months ago, but you know what I also trust to the universe because, you know, a couple of months ago I didn't have all these other things that I felt comfortable sharing. So again, timing is everything. So again, thank you for your patience and having these webinars scheduled. I appreciate everything you ladies are doing. I cannot wait to hear more about what you have going on because I'm all about learning and growing together. Thank you so much.

Jennifer Wenzel 52:38

Have a wonderful rest of your day.

Landy Miyake 52:41

Thank you so much!