Cashflows with Cash Matthews
Financial behavior, entrepreneurship, and the path to success in what we like to call the Good Life!
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Cashflows with Cash Matthews
112. Cultivating Holistic Health: The Community-Centered Approach with Cash Matthews and Andrea Reed
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Embarking on a health journey can feel like an uphill battle, especially in a healthcare system that often leaves us fragmented and unsupported. But what if the key to wellness is not just in the hands of doctors, but in our own communities and the food we grow? I'm Cash Matthews, and in this enlightening episode, I sit down with Kenneth Baucum and special guest Andrea Reed, founder of the Oklahoma Center for Wellness, to unravel a new vision for holistic health—a vision born from her own experience founding a nonprofit while pregnant and her transformative international insights. We're here to stoke the fires of your entrepreneurial spirit and plant the seeds of change for a more proactive health approach.
The conversation takes a deep look at the roots of our current health crisis, spotlighting the need for a health system that's not only reactive but also regenerative. From the importance of nutrient-dense foods to the innovative potential of urban agriculture like quail farming, we're dissecting societal norms and planting the idea of a community-centric health model. Our nonprofit initiatives, including a comprehensive holistic directory, and the trailblazing Oklahoma Center for Wellness, stand as testaments to our commitment to blending sustainable practices with wellness education. It's a call to arms for all who're ready to cultivate a future where health goes beyond the mere absence of illness—and it all starts with the choices we make, the food we eat, and the support we provide one another.
As we wind down, we turn our attention to a holistic wellness event on the horizon and the crucial fundraising underway for the wellness center. We're building more than just a building; we're cultivating a sanctuary for community, education, and hands-on experiences that empower us all to lead healthier lives. By weaving together threads of mental health awareness, environmental stewardship, and the transformative power of forgiveness, we invite you to join us in this collective journey. Whether you're volunteering, participating, or contributing, your role in this paradigm shift in health and wellness is pivotal. Prepare to leave this dialogue refreshed, reinspired, and equipped to take the helm of your health journey with newfound vigor.
Oklahoma Center for Wellness - https://learnteachheal.org/
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Hello, entrepreneurs, dreamers business owners and happy people with high hopes.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Cash Flows with your host, Cash Matthews.
Speaker 3:All right, another riveting edition of Cash Flows. I'm your host today, cash Matthews, here with my friend, kenneth Bauckham, and we're glad you're here today. You know, on this show we talk about the concept of fire, aim ready, and that is genuinely about taking action, and we believe in taking action. Not perfect action, but a whole lot of imperfect action will get you across the goal line, or however we're supposed to say that. But it's about taking action.
Speaker 3:And you know, too many people get caught in life and it is, for some anyway, ready, aim, aim, aim, and they never pull the trigger on these things that we would call goals and objectives. Then, all of a sudden, you're 132 years old and life has passed you by and you go to the grave with the music still in you. So if we can inspire you today to take one step in any direction that you find favorable, that's a win and we are glad you're here. And with that, let's say hello to Mr Kenneth Bauckham. Kenneth, hey, how's it going? You know I've got some coffee here I'm going to drink during our show. I'm pretty psyched right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, is it in the official Cash Flows, coffee mug or Nope, just regular. We're going to write it on.
Speaker 3:Cash Flows. It is CF.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I was told we should do a serious podcast as well, and actually today we do have a serious podcast. It is serious. You know, today we get to talk with Andrea Reed about the health care system in America and some plans that you've had as a vision in your heart that maybe we make some changes, and I am excited about this having been a product. You know, we all go through health care things and you find out that the health care system is really neither healing, caring or a system, and we're going to love this show. I think this will be well received, and so we want to get to know you and what's going on in your world, because I know it's vast, which is why I got coffee. We may go. This may be Joe Rogan style. We do three hours today, so did you bring a lunch? No, all right. So anyway, welcome Andrea Reed, thank you, and she is the founder of the Oklahoma Center for Wellness.
Speaker 3:If you'd like to find out more about her and a lot of what we'll talk about today on the show, you can go to learnteachhealorg, because Andrea has some big plans and the Bible says where there's no vision, people perish.
Speaker 3:But man, what about where there is a vision, and I'm excited to hear what's going on in your world because I know you've got a vision and I think it's probably larger today than the last podcast we did. It seems like this idea has traction. It seems like you're about to make a giant difference in your community and there are people right now that need you, that don't know you exist. So today we want to change that up a little bit and get the information out there. Andrea Reid is a multi-passionate wellness entrepreneur official title, if you want to know what she is. I like that name, like that's pretty good. So she founded the nonprofit Oklahoma Center for Wellness and it'll help others shorten the time it takes to find holistic health resources in our community, because really, I mean, do you agree with that assessment that health care is a little bit sloppy right now?
Speaker 1:The system is not supporting the people in the way they need it.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and people within the system are not being supported and people who are going there for help are not getting the help that they need in the way that they need it Absolutely.
Speaker 3:So, to that extent, health care has been fractionalized. Where you, you can't find it all in one place, right? You know there's no healthcare shopping mall. You walk in and there's one place to get all of the information. So, anyway, we're excited to talk about this, um, so I want to. Before we get into the really meaty stuff, I want to hear a little bit about your background, I know, but I think your fans and listeners want to know a little bit more about you, so help us get to know you.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah. So I was born and raised in Canada and Vancouver Island in Canada and I have always wanted to travel. I love people, I love cultures and I love learning about just different environments and seeing what our beautiful planet has to offer. So I left when I was 19 and had the opportunity to move to Holland for a year and was a nanny for four kids. And wow, you know, I had a lot of energy at 19 to take care of four kids. I take care of two kids now and I look back and I'm thinking, oh okay, I did a pretty good job yeah.
Speaker 1:So I thought you know my family. My friends thought I'd be gone for a year. So I thought you know my family. My friends thought I'd be gone for a year and I got the travel bug and went over to England and spent the next seven years living and working there. My grandmother was British and so it was very easy to get through visas and stay and work. Yeah, so I was. Eventually I ended up in hotel management, running in the event center side of sales and marketing business development, and from there I went into central London and was running organic food stores on the retail side of it. So I got into health and wellness professionally over in the UK.
Speaker 3:Now, what age are you when this is all going on? This sounds like you're just getting started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so from age 20 is when I moved over to the UK, wow yeah, and I spent three years in the hotel, so 23.
Speaker 3:Wow, okay, the seat to me. That's impressive that, just to start out with, you have the guts to go follow some light that's in your heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember sitting on the airplane by myself with all my stuff packed up and um, airplane was taking off from Vancouver to go to Amsterdam and I just had this moment of like whoa.
Speaker 3:What am I doing? Yeah, absolutely I think a lot of entrepreneurs have that moment. They may not be on an airplane to another country, yeah, but they might be getting in their car the first time to go to their first one-on-one and going, man, what have I done?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:How do you overcome that Like I want to get in the mind of 20-year-old you? Yeah, how do you like was the drive for you that strong?
Speaker 1:Yes, I absolutely have. I've always felt like I reverse engineer regret. Like you said in the intro, I don't want to go to the grave with my song still in me and that fire ready aim. I couldn't believe it. When I first came in here and I saw that on the wall, I was like this is absolutely how I operate. I used to think there was something wrong with it. Shouldn't I be more prepared? Shouldn't I have things more planned out? What about the risks? What if you fail and it's like so what?
Speaker 3:What if I fail?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but what if you fly? What if?
Speaker 3:you fly?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and you hear about the high performance achievers and people who have succeeded in a lot of businesses have failed so many times, and so I homeschool our two boys and my husband and I both teach them. Failing is a part of learning and growth, and if you can build a muscle with that, you know what if I suck? I came here today and I was like, oh, what if this is? You know? No, it'll be wonderful.
Speaker 3:You'll be like I think everybody knows this is going to be a great one.
Speaker 1:But what if I don't show up? What if I don't go to that one-on-one? What if I don't take that step? There's a whole infinite possibility there that we might miss out on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but the world and these things that we call success really is set up for doers. I mean, anybody can have anything and become anything, but somebody like you who's at 20, like, eh, you know, let's just go to another country. You know, that's what suits me, and I love that you didn't have some preconceived, premeditated idea that somebody else had for you. Like, oh, you don't want to do that, you want to go to work at Sears or some other, you know.
Speaker 1:I had a few of those, but I just I was like no, I'm good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm impressed that at age 20 you found that Well okay. So you've done a variety of job type things. When does that turn into this desire to make this difference Because you're a difference maker People that go into this world the way you're doing it. It's not all about money, for sure.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:It is really about. You know, and Kenneth and I have this phrase we want to leave a footprint instead of a butt print, so walk us through, when you're making this decision, that like I'm meant to do something, and here it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the writing has been on the wall for me for many, many years. I founded this organization in 2010, pregnant with my first son, because I knew that I wanted to get through all the paperwork of starting the nonprofit before we had him. My brain was sharper before having kids in that way and I'm working on getting that back still. But the beautiful thing that I noticed was that, having grown up in kind of a holistic environment and Vancouver Island is is very natural environment. Natural beauty, natural foods are plenty Like the health and wellness lifestyle is promoted there a lot more than other parts of the world, and I just realized that, hey, our systems are not really working and serving the people in the way that we need and they're not sustainable.
Speaker 1:I noticed that in England, when there's a very small country with a very high population and the healthcare system then this is not to bash anything. I think that we all know that this is just kind of where we're at. But within healthcare, within food production, within how we're educating our children, within how we're educating people on finances, we are not set up to be sustainable and healthy within all those different categories. And I was coming from a place of what if we built a place that had systems that supported people in all these categories all under one roof, 360 degrees of health and wellness and sustainability inside and out, so not just the segmented pieces of, like you said earlier, with the medical system, having that be all separated, you can't just go to one person anymore.
Speaker 3:It's very fragmented.
Speaker 1:Yes, fragmented is such a great word for that, because I think it used to be that you would have a GP that could handle everything more holistically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, birth to earth. I mean you had somebody that was going to walk you through the whole thing, right, and that I don't know that HMO style system where you had one quarterback for your health. I can't tell that it's worked. And I'm not here to bash the health care system I've benefited from it as well but I just I have this philosophy that health is a different scale than we measure. I think a lot of people measure their health hey, I don't have any diseases, I must be healthy. But I think there's a scale that goes upwards, from zero diseases to where you feel good, right, and your brain operates well, and that you're operating probably more how you were designed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, above the wellness line is not really what our current system is looking at.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And most medical professionals will say that health is the absence of disease, right will say that health is the absence of disease, and so, within our community of holistic health and wellness practitioners, we are really. The aim of what we're doing is to help people have more years at the end of their life that are healthy years.
Speaker 3:Better years yeah.
Speaker 1:Quality years where you know my goal is to be running and playing with my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and having that mobility and so investing in ourselves early on. But if you don't know what you don't know, how do you find out? And so I also have had recent health issues, and if I had only had the current system, then I would be told there's nothing really we can do to help you. Right, and luckily I've come out of those conversations knowing I can count on both hands several people that have been able to help me to heal fully, and I think just having information is helpful.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of information we didn't have 20 years ago, and so the Internet's been both a blessing and a curse. It's a curse when you Google every little symptom.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:But it's helpful when you can learn a little bit more up the food chain. Well, let's talk about I want to hear more about the nonprofit and I want to talk a great deal about that, if we can, and find out what you have going on and what the vision is. And I know that you guys do a community garden. Do I have that correct? Yep, we do. I think that's one of the coolest things ever. So just walk us through the nonprofit and how you see that breathing life into so many people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the one way that we can help short the amount of time it takes people to find resources is through our website LearnTeachHealorg. We're building out our holistic directory there so that's one piece of our nonprofit where people can come for free and look through our listings and find different practitioners. They can find local farmers, places, resources for healthy water, healthy soil, healthy food, chiropractors, body work, acupuncture all different resources plethora. So that's one piece of it. Our vision for Oklahoma Center for Wellness is to build a sustainable wellness center on regeneratively restored land here in northeastern Oklahoma.
Speaker 1:So, we're looking for 80 to 100 acres, even 40 to 100 acres. We've walked a lot of different properties to find the right piece. It has to be the right piece and, within our team that is designing the look and feel of the wellness center, we'll have different components, so we'll have teaching gardens that feed into the teaching kitchen. The teaching kitchen feeds into the meal prep aspect of things, so that busy professionals can acquire meals for their families without breaking the bank and that are nutrient-dense, that haven't had ingredients trucked across the country and lost all their nutrition by the time they get to your plate.
Speaker 3:Got it.
Speaker 1:One of the number one return on investments worldwide to our community is to get nutrient-dense foods into school-aged children.
Speaker 3:Give us an example of nutrient-dense foods. So that our listeners know what that's about.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So an example would be Robinson Ranch grows microgreens and so they have their pea shoot microgreens. They have their pea shoot microgreens and within their microgreens I don't know the percentage exactly, but there's a higher quality of nutrition in those pea shoots before they actually grow to grow peas. Okay, so my kids will buy microgreens from Robinson Ranch and they'll be on one little car that's delivered to our house and my kids will stuff microgreens in their mouth.
Speaker 1:I'm like we're supposed to be putting these on fried eggs and in sandwiches and using them, you know, in salads, and they'll just shovel them in because they they taste amazing. It's like picking stuff from your garden is healthier than having it picked too early and too ripe and having it trucked across the country, because that's where most of our food comes from either California or Mexico or another state to bring it in.
Speaker 3:So part of your, of your program is the idea that we could grow these more locally, source them more locally and have a better product.
Speaker 1:Have a better product, have a more nutritious product, supporting our systems. That takes some of the burden off the health care system, but we're also supporting our local economy too. We're knowing our farmer.
Speaker 1:We're able to look in the eyeballs of the person who is growing our food, raising our meat, and knowing how they do it, so that we're not getting all those additional chemicals that are causing a lot of problems for people, the majority. I have a friend who says the number one, the top three, actually leading causes of death in the United States can be caused by what's on our dinner plate.
Speaker 3:I think that there may be a lot of truth in that. So let's back up a minute because I want to talk about the land you're looking for. Yes, we may have people listening who own some land that might be a spot to help, or they've seen some, because I think we need to identify, like this is one of the first steps is to find the land and then, okay, so tell us about the land one more time, because I know there's somebody listening that goes you know what? My grandpa has 800 acres, and I bet we could split off 40 acres and really leave a footprint for them. How would that work? They can donate land to you tax deductibly.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we are a 501c3 established in 2010, and so all donations are tax-deductible, right, and there's other ways too, and well, there's an infinite number of ways that we could work that out with people within fundraising and actually purchasing it outright, or having the land donated, which is great too. We're looking for yeah, I would say about 40 acres and up. We're looking for clean land, land that hasn't been overly sprayed with chemicals and pesticides and maybe conventional monocrop ag, even though, for the right piece of land, you can restore that.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:And there's ways to be able to make that healthy soil again. We're looking for land that has its own water source, because that's also going to be a part of the sustainability and the regenerative aspect to it.
Speaker 3:How cool is that yeah so. I just bet there's somebody listening that knows where your land is.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And right now maybe it gets put on their heart that, hey, let's find a way. Whatever the way is, let's go find the way, yep, because there's so much land just sitting there.
Speaker 1:Yes, there is.
Speaker 3:And it may be generational, but how cool would it be that you could find that land here in the very near future.
Speaker 1:Well, and our program, the way we have it set up is, it's designed to monetize the land initially, once we get into it, so it increases the value of it. So we have different economic engines in different stages. That once we step into the property, the financial sustainability of the land is really important to us, as well as the stewardship of nature and the land itself.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, let's talk about what inspired you to be this person that is amazing and doing things that are valuable. I don't know. I get excited, Kenneth, when I meet somebody. They're not just in it for the money.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't know how much money could possibly be in this, but you're doing it for the right reason. Mm-hmm, what happened? How did you end up here? What inspired you to be you?
Speaker 1:I don't think I couldn't not do it. I noticed that there are simpler ways to do things that support people, that healing our bodies, all aspects of ourselves, can be very, very simple if you have the right tools and you have the right knowledge. And so, to be able to bring people in that have been struggling and suffering for years, into a building where they can have an intake session with a practitioner that can help create a wellness program for them Right, because every individual is unique and everyone has a unique history and container. So, having this intake process, where here are the different modalities that can help you, and here's your program, having the food aspect of it folded into that as well, having the model of education. And as I became a mother and an entrepreneur, I realized that I didn't want to choose between putting my kids in daycare and building a business, or having them with me and feeling like I could have done something else as well. And that's just what's in my heart is to support and help people through my business, but also to have my kids with me. So we've created this model within the Wellness Center, where and it's mostly women, but it is some men too within the wellness center, where and it's mostly women, but it is some men too.
Speaker 1:So I don't mean to say like mamas, but we know a lot of practitioners who want to pull their kids from the school systems but don't quite know how that looks yet.
Speaker 1:Like the systems are not there to support us in the modern world. Before we would have 150 people in community and we would all be doing things and you know, chopping wood and carrying water. But the way we are in our modern world right now, we don't have those systems in place. So I felt like I could see the vision for these systems that would work and through lots of trial and error in my own home and then scaling it, we found ways to have practitioners work and have the school side of it. So it's really been through necessity. I want to be a part of creating new systems so that my kids going forward can live happier, healthier lives, because right now that's not the trajectory that we're on and I feel like our society is smart enough to be able to figure out the answers. If we know that there's too much carbon in the atmosphere but regenerative farming can correct that in 20, 30 years, it's like, well, let's go do it.
Speaker 3:So you mentioned in your bio that not just food production but food distribution, so this center could be a place. Is the idea to educate people about production of these foods? Yes, and so that the distribution could just be in their own acre, in the backyard?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Is that how?
Speaker 3:you see this going.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. I actually saw a little video and it said that there was. It was either Belgium or Holland. There was a city in Europe and every family that wanted three chickens got three chickens.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And they just gave them three chickens and taught them how to raise them. And if cities in America did that, we would need we would have no need for an egg industry which is pretty crazy, because we would be self-sufficient.
Speaker 1:So should there be an issue with trucking, or should there be an issue with weather or whatever, what have you what we've seen in the last couple of years? Empty shelves would not be an issue because we would have food production in our backyard. Now the flip side of that is for any of our listeners that have ever gone on like healing retreats or things like that, or workshops or seminars and you go and you immerse yourself in this amazing maybe a weekend or a day or a a week long retreat.
Speaker 1:You know where I'm going with this and you're like, yes, this is great, I love it, I'm going to make all these changes. And then we go back home and maybe some of us find like, okay, but real life is here and how do we actually implement these? That's where the work starts. So the wellness center itself is this immersive experience for people to come to learn teach. The wellness center itself is this immersive experience for people to come to learn, teach heal we all have that within us.
Speaker 1:That's why it's learnteachhealorg but also to have the education and the tools to be able to take the micro versions back to their homes, like you said, where they can do this in their kitchens, in their backyards, in their homes. So we have the micro and the macro model, the larger vision of the wellness center on, you know, 40 plus acres. We also would ideally like to have, you know, two to five acres within town, so we have a central hub.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, so something a little more central than because if you get 40 acres, it's probably on the perimeter of town at least. Okay, well, that's pretty cool. You know, you and I have a mutual friend. I don't want to say her name, but she lives in a nice neighborhood and she raises quail.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 3:But in her house you're not allowed to raise poultry in most neighborhoods. But she brought one of her baby quail to one of our events and she raises quail and does quail eggs and they're very delicious. Yeah, and in my brain I was like why doesn't everybody do this Right? And she's able to do it indoors. It's not like a giant hassle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think people just don't think about hey, what if I made this change? So I'm glad to hear this story, because our friend is in the quail business in her very suburban home.
Speaker 1:I love that Well, and we have our modern conveniences, and I think a lot of our natural resources have been stripped away from us and our education has been stripped away from us and sold back to us at a premium, and so now it's kind of time to take back the reins with our own health and with our own things that matter, including food production.
Speaker 3:Right, we're going to take a quick minute to say thank you to one of our primary advertisers, mr Kenneth, who we're running with today.
Speaker 2:This episode is sponsored by MFP my Financial Plan. With my Financial Plan, keep everything you own in one secure, accessible place. See everything you own and know what everything is worth. Benefits include a personal financial website with daily balances and budgeting tools. It's accessible anytime and you can get it for yourself at joinmfpcom.
Speaker 3:All right, one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a great product.
Speaker 3:Wealthy people know where their stuff is, people that struggle. It's all over the map and that's actually why we created that product. Wow Is to hey. I think average people have the right to know what wealthy people know, but nobody teaches that, and I think that same line of thinking in the financial world is what hurts the health and wellness industry. I mean, your quote was what's killing us is what's on our plate.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we're out trying to solve the end result, which is medical care. But if we could bring it back full circle, man, what a but that would lead to planned obsolescence for doctors and prescriptions. Do you think the industry really wants us to be healthy or do they want us to be customers?
Speaker 1:I mean, every industry needs customers, but I think that you know there's room for for both right now. I think that we have a foot in both worlds right now and if more people look upstream to from sick care to like wellness, health and wellness. You wanted me to go more controversial on that, didn't you?
Speaker 3:No, I just want you to do you. I don't want you to be thrown in the back of a black van or something.
Speaker 1:Never again.
Speaker 3:Have them come and get me. I'm easier to get a hold of.
Speaker 1:No, I do think that the system is not set up to support us. I think the system is set up exactly. I used to say the systems are broken. Education, agriculture, you know, chem ag now it's really medical, but it's, you know. My eyes have been opened to the fact that the systems are doing exactly what they were designed to do and there's amazing, wonderful, caring, beautiful people within the systems that are just maybe trained to do what the system?
Speaker 3:is training them to do Right. So I think I know why this is important and you've illustrated this a few times when we've talked, talk about the numbers and why this is essential, because today's health care system, to me, is more reactive.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Here's a Band-Aid for your scrape, but I think what you're proposing is that we be more pre-active or proactive where, like you said, if you could go upstream a little bit, there's not as much death to go around if you deal with it on that level. Talk about some of the numbers going on in the healthcare industry right now in terms of why this is so important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so mental health is number one that I would like to discuss the health and wellness. Mental health and wellness of our population is declining at a rapid and alarming pace, and our teens, adolescents, our kids, are suffering the most. It used to be that anxiety and depression were doubling every generation, and then 2020 happened and those numbers have been skyrocketing, and so we know that these numbers can be reduced through spending time in community, spending time in nature and consuming nutrient-dense foods. So when people are doing those three things getting natural daylight, sunshine, activating the vitamin D within the body, consuming the nutrition, earthing feet in you know, okay, I've been reading about this.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you're talking about this so good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, grounding feet in the earth. You know we were called tree huckers for a reason, but it's like and I joke about that but it's like getting your feet in the earth helps to actually remove the electromagnetic charge from holding our devices and being around all these cell towers and things like that. So it's just bringing us back into the earth's magnetics which has, you know, the studies are showing that that's really helping people with stress, but also with physical issues in the body. So it really isn't rocket science when you look at the numbers and you think you know. Let's build a wellness center where people can come and do that, where they can be in community and learn, where they can be in the gardens they can get. You know, I envision busloads of kids coming up with fingers in the dirt and learning how their food is produced oh, that's a great idea yeah, and there's there's organizations that are already doing that work right now.
Speaker 1:Um, so we're just bringing it together in one hub that's inspiring.
Speaker 3:I'm glad to hear that yeah and um.
Speaker 1:so the mental health aspect of it absolutely has to be corrected and and currently it's solely medicated, and we have alternatives to that for people who are looking for that.
Speaker 3:I think one of the great problems in our country is mental health. Care was really written out of most health care plans as well, and it's very you know. We pay all this money for insurance, but it's not critically working towards resolution when it comes to mental health, and I think mental health used to have a stigma. Do you see that that's dissipated some?
Speaker 1:Very much so, and with sharing so much on social media and, I also think, younger generations that are just fed up with carrying the burden of what's been passed down to them there's more people talking about well, when I talk to my therapist and there's like no stigma around that anymore, and there shouldn't be, and sometimes mental health can and I'm not a mental health expert just like quoting some of the numbers that we saw.
Speaker 1:but sometimes mental health can come from a nutritional imbalance in the brain and there should be no stigma around that, because that's just math, we're just not it's just math, that's right. We're not, and I thought you'd appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you for that.
Speaker 1:We're not taking in as much nutrition as we need for the machine to operate optimally.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Or there's been so much trauma and that's not people's fault either, right? So it is very exciting to see people talking about it and more and more people resources and ways to heal at the root.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've recognized that. You know, when I went to high school in the 70s, late 70s I mean, there was definitely a stigma if you were talking to somebody about mental health.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But as I got older I went man, I need some help with some things. There's things I can't see. I've got a blind spot and I've enjoyed going to a counselor yeah, because they can see things and I've enjoyed going to a counselor.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because they can see things and they're not afraid to say something in a way. You know, if I went to my, you know, some adult in my life hey, I'm struggling with these concepts they might say, hey, rub some dirt on it, you'll be fine. And I don't think that's the right idea. I think, you know, and not everything we feel needs to be, you know, dealt with maybe in that way. But you know, there are times in my life like I was absolutely sure I need another set of eyeballs in this and I need somebody who can listen. And if there's a deficiency in my body medically, chemically I want to deal with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And kind of get back to what feels like normal. So I'm glad you started with that. I think that's one of the most overlooked essential areas of coverage in this healthcare health and wellness because wellness is a much bigger word for me than just health. I don't have the flu, I don't have a broken bone Okay, well, I'm healthy-ish, but I want to be well, I want to. Maybe we call that the wellness chart, which is above zero. There's probably a name for it, but I'm glad to hear you talking about that. Well, what else? I mean? I know mental issues have been big, but we need there's so much with the diet, there's so much with nutrition, there's so much with the chemicals and additives to our food. Talk about that, because there's stuff going on that shouldn't be going on at the rate diabetes and heart disease.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Diabetes and heart disease and cancer is epidemic proportions. We have chemicals in our air and our water sprayed on our food, injected into our food, in the DNA of our food. What else? Household toxins, chemicals, how our houses are built, all these different pieces. There's so much more.
Speaker 3:Two years ago, katie and I decided to get all the chemicals out of our house Nice and we found some companies that support that idea. Yeah, and we just use their products. And we took fluoride out of our toothpaste, yep, and we've just do what you can do, you know, and it's not it, man, if you think being healthy is expensive, you should see what it costs to be sick, you know, cause you lose time, money, effort, co-pays, not not just to mention, you know, the medical expense side, but Well, and it's this illusion that insurance covers it.
Speaker 1:And if it's not covered by insurance, it's this illusion that insurance covers it, and if it's not, covered by insurance and it's out of pocket, then that's expensive and insurance doesn't cover as much as we think it does. And you're exactly right. And yes, 100%. And also it steals from you being sick or having an issue or an injury. It steals from your time with loved ones and I mean you can never get that time back. That's invaluable.
Speaker 3:Right. So, Well, so people are benefiting from the work you're doing on the nonprofit.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:How do you see this? I mean, let's start with the timeframe when, in your imagination, as you've built this out, yeah, from your heart to paper, how long.
Speaker 1:So we would like to get into the macro excuse me, the micro version of the wellness center this year. So we are actively seeking funding to be able to acquire a piece of property in central Tulsa area. It's a couple acres, it has a couple buildings on it and that would give us our home base to be able to operate out of. People would be able to come in on their lunch break and pick up their meals for the week, their dinners for the week.
Speaker 3:Oh, cool idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that gives them back a couple hours at the end of their day, stress-free with their family, and people could come in throughout the day for different treatments and different programs for adults programming for adults and children as well. So we would like to get into this property this year and then we envision, within five years, having the wellness center developed and built.
Speaker 3:So this is ongoing, and and so you'll start with the micro version, first two, three acres, four acres.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's it's fire ready aim, and we are on the ground learning as we go. So we, you know, we recently partnered with somebody who had a 7,000 square foot lot in Owen Park community and so Owen Park neighborhood is Tulsa's oldest neighborhood. It's really really cute, really cool in North Tulsa and we had a connection there and we were able to develop that into a community garden, so that's ongoing right now. That was never in the plan. That was like we're looking for 80 to 100 acres and we acquired 7 000 square feet and it's been so beautiful and such a blessing and has attracted just the most amazing talented people that are helping us then with the larger vision. So when you say so, you're going to start with the smaller one maybe.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, who knows, Maybe this podcast reaches the guy that's like I'm so sick of having this 100 acres here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just don't want to mow anymore.
Speaker 3:I just have to mow it.
Speaker 1:We'll bring in some goats and take care.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like the way you're thinking about that. Well, this is exciting. I mean, I am genuinely excited and I think our listeners will be as well. Thank you, and I think our listeners will be as well. Thank you that we can make a change. And you know, in my brain there's got to be somebody out there right now that wants to be part of this. You know, maybe there's yeah.
Speaker 3:I think there are a lot of people that you know. I mean, our country is wealthy, yeah, and you know, if we can share our toys a little bit better, maybe this comes to life. And so do you have a board of directors that direct all of the donors and everything squared away with all that?
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah, we have our board of directors and it's just amazing the talented people that have come to contribute their time and support our organization.
Speaker 3:Do any governmental agencies around the area? How do they perceive you? Because I could see, on one hand, man, that would be awesome. I'd love to be a politician who said, yeah, we help bring this into life, but I also see you might be a threat on some level. How do the government institutions relate to you?
Speaker 1:So we actually had a representative from state and federal. He works with the USDA and he came out to the community garden and helped us teach a soil health class out there. So yeah, my anti-system upbringing was a little resistant to reaching out to areas. But you know, we want to put Oklahoma on the map for health and wellness in a positive way. So you know we want to put Oklahoma on the map for health and wellness in a positive way. So you know, one thing I would love to do is reach out to the governor.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Local government. You know there's lots of funding and grant opportunities that we've been working with as well.
Speaker 3:If only you were part of some social group that had 7,000 or 8,000 members that could reach out to him.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't know if he'd be willing to come and talk to 8,000 people who represent 24,000 people in our community, but maybe Maybe, If we could only find such a thing. Yeah Well, I'll keep my eye open for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me know if you.
Speaker 3:I may know a guy, so let's drill down a little bit. What do you need to get going?
Speaker 1:Yeah, $1.2 million for the micro in town Right and then, pretty close to that actually, for the larger property further out of town.
Speaker 3:Right, so $1.2 to start, local, $1.2 to find the land. But that doesn't build the facility obviously.
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't build the facility depending on on, obviously, the real estate market and what's going on. We've actually found some properties that are comparable to what we're looking for, that are about 800,000. And so yeah, just a little bit further out of town.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, are you able to take in-kind trades, like from an architect or a builder or a land developer? Yes, are we looking for those people as well?
Speaker 1:Yes, so we have a great firm downtown that's working with us. Who has donated? Their time, yes To do an artist rendering of the wellness center and also to do the actual plans.
Speaker 3:Okay, so they'll do like a topographical. Hey, here's what this is going to look like, and here's the creek. Yeah, that is cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're very talented and also very passionate about what it is that we're doing, so they've been adding a lot of value to our vision. All right, so, yes, so things that we're looking for well, we're looking for support with connections, and I mean anyone that's listening to this. It's like, well, I may not have land or money to donate to the nonprofit, but I know a few people so sharing our vision, sharing at learnteachhealorg. I've got a 90-second, two-minute video that's on there that talks about the vision and paints it out of what we're doing. So who do you know that would want to contribute to this?
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think we're on our way, man. I love this concept. So we need funding, we need some connections, yes, and we need volunteers.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:How does one volunteer in this project for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. People can go to the website and they can reach out to us through there.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:We have our events listed there as well, and so people can participate in the events. They can sign up to be a volunteer, either currently within the community garden or at the Holistic Wellness event, which is our annual big event that we host Oklahoma's largest holistic health and wellness vendor event.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And so that this year is October 12th, 2024.
Speaker 3:Okay, and that's the one you've always done in the fall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, got it, yeah, okay and that's the one you've always done in the fall.
Speaker 3:Yeah, got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyone also this kind of segues to people who are looking for health and wellness answers? In the interim, while we don't have the physical building built yet, people can come to our events and walk around and interview practitioners.
Speaker 3:So you talk about vendors at your events, so we could also find vendors to participate in this event. Is it already sold out for October? No, it's not about vendors at your events, so we could also find vendors to participate in this event. Is it already sold out for october? No, it's not.
Speaker 1:No, we're at stony creek hotel and conference center in broken arrow. This year fun okay yeah, so we've got the 12 000 square foot grand ballroom and people will walk in and I think we have room for about 150 different vendors in there okay, so anybody who vends into the world of health and wellness would be welcome.
Speaker 3:Yes, so people that sell nutritional products or skin care or any of those things, they're welcome to come and be part of this. That's a great solution.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so 150 vendors and we're actually reaching out. We had somebody sign up from Northeast Arkansas, so we're reaching out to the local area as well within Kansas, missouri and Arkansas, oklahoma City. We'd like to reach out to more people too, but it really started with northeastern Oklahoma because there's so many holistic practitioners that have helped my family and our immediate community. We just wanted to bring them all together under one roof and then it just grew and grew. So now we're getting local vendors that sell product, food, soil, health, different pieces of that.
Speaker 3:Okay. So if you want to volunteer, if you want to contribute, if you want to be part of a beautiful success story, you can go to learnteachealorg and find out a little bit more. I know you've got a video there, and are there also payment links if people just want to start to donate organically?
Speaker 1:Yes, yep. So we have the option to have a monthly subscription where you can donate on a recurring basis, or you can make a one-time donation there as well.
Speaker 3:Is your organization on social media as well?
Speaker 1:Yes, facebook, instagram and LinkedIn Holistic Oklahoma.
Speaker 3:Holistic Oklahoma on all of those places Yep. Holistic Oklahoma Kenna. On Facebook, instagram, twitter, myspace all of those places you can still find. Aol, AOL yeah, we're on the AOL team here, all right. Well, we are here with Andrea Reed, who is the founder of this website of funding. Help me say the name again one more time, so I have the full name correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oklahoma Center for Wellness.
Speaker 3:Oklahoma Center for Wellness and we can find that at learnteachealorg. We have a giant event coming up in October. I hope everybody will participate with. Yeah, I hope I'm available because I wasn't able last year, but I'd sure like to be part of that this year. We want to get the word out about that to our friends out there. Thank you All right. Well, we're to that point of the show where we get a golden nugget from you about business and or life, and we love to share wisdom with people. It's one of the things I think in these type of organizations that's best served is to share wisdom with other people who are seeking. So we have a bunch of people seeking today. Andrea, what would your golden nugget be for today?
Speaker 1:Well, it was a little bit aligned with what you shared at the beginning and I feel like that fire-ready aim is just something that more people could lean into and embrace a little bit more. If you feel like you have something in your heart that you want to start, if you feel like you have something to contribute, or a business, or as big or as small as it could be, take the steps, take action, try it out. If it's a lemonade stand or a multimillion-dollar business, and if it brings you joy, I don't think we've been taught that our income and our business and our time can be aligned with what brings us joy and purpose and can serve others.
Speaker 1:So if there's something in your heart that sparks that, go for it and find people who have done it. Find people who are successful. Reach out to people in the business owners networking group in Tulsa.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 1:And find a mentor and go for it.
Speaker 3:We are going to wrap up. Do you work with a mentor now? Do you have somebody in your world that you can go to?
Speaker 1:I do. I have two coaches, and then I would like to talk more with you, cash Matthews.
Speaker 3:Oh well, I don't want to be a tormentor, which is always a possibility. All right, we are here today talking with Andrea Reid, and she's doing things to make the world a better place, and if you'd like to find her, you can reach out at learnteachealorg and find out about the amazing work that she's doing. Thank you, I think you make our country a better place to be.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:And I look forward to more of that Appreciate it. How was this show? It was excellent. This is better than I expected.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:I didn't eat Twinkies right before this because I wanted to be aligned.
Speaker 3:Your best, you wanted to be your best self. I wanted to be living my best life. So we're going to wrap it up here today. From Cash Flows, you know and we close every show with this hope is that today would be a great day to find somebody to forgive. You know, so often people need to be forgiven and don't even know it.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm a clod. I've been one of those guys my whole life and I think forgiveness is not about that other person. I think it's about you and setting you free. We tie these anchors around us and walk around and wonder why am I going so slow? Why are things happening not as quickly? And often it's because you and you, you know there's a grudge or something you're holding, and a grudge is the heaviest thing in the world to lift on a daily basis and it builds no good muscle. So today, think about it, Find somebody and let them know hey, I've been bothered by this for X number of days weeks, years, months and forgive them, because forgiveness makes the world go round, and we're glad you're here with Cash Flows, sharing the wisdom of people like Andrea who are making the world a better place.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being here today. That's our show for today. Stay tuned for another riveting edition of cash flows.
