Episode 217
What to Do When You Feel Like You're Doing Too Much in Your Business with Chronic Illness | Andrea Nakayama
Ever look at everything on your business plate and think "there's no way I can do all of this"?
This episode is for entrepreneurs with chronic illness who feel overwhelmed trying to grow their business while managing fluctuating capacity. CEO of Functional Medicine Nutritionist Andrea Nakayama shares how she built Functional Nutrition Alliance while managing Hashimoto's, grief, and single parenthood—without burning out.
We're diving into business strategies for chronic illness entrepreneurs, including the "base camp method" for sustainable business growth, why persistence beats consistency when your capacity changes, and how to pivot your expectations when chronic illness impacts your business.
What You'll Walk Away With:
✅ The Base Camp Method - A practical framework for breaking down overwhelming business goals into manageable steps when your capacity fluctuates with chronic illness
✅ Persistence vs. Consistency Mindset Shift - Understanding why showing up YOUR way matters more than rigid consistency, and what sustainable growth actually looks like for entrepreneurs managing chronic illness
✅ The Five P's Framework - The exact formula (Passion, Permission, Purpose, Persistence, Perseverance) that kept Andrea going through grief, Hashimoto's, and single parenthood while building a thriving business
✅ How to Recalibrate Your Capacity - Practical ways to pivot your expectations and tune into your nervous system so you know when you're actually doing too much versus just feeling overwhelmed
Resources for Entrepreneurs with Chronic Illness:
- The Five P's for Sustainable Business Growth: Passion, Permission, Purpose, Persistence, Perseverance
- Base Camp Method: Andrea's approach to business growth with chronic illness without burnout
- Functional Nutrition Alliance: Training programs for practitioners managing chronic illness
🎧 Want to learn more about today’s guest?
Visit CraftedToThrive.com for guest details, key takeaways, and extra links mentioned in this episode.
🌿 If you’re navigating entrepreneurship and chronic illness, or simply craving a more sustainable way to grow your business without sacrificing your health, energy, or self-care priorities, explore Chronically You & Profitable (CYAP).
CYAP is my voice-first business system designed for women entrepreneurs, creatives, and women with chronic illness who want sustainable growth and burnout support while keeping life and wellness first.
It helps you use your voice and story to build a business with systems and strategies that run smoothly, so your work supports your life, not the other way around.
⭐ Enjoyed this conversation? Leave a review and share it with another CEO woman or creative entrepreneur growing a health-first, sustainable business.
📱 Stay connected: Follow me on Instagram.
Transcript
You know that feeling when you're looking at everything on your plate in your business?
Speaker A:The marketing, the client work, the admin work, the emails, and not to mention other things that are happening in your life and your brain goes, there is no way I can do all of this.
Speaker A:When you're juggling what you have capacity for living with chronic illness to trying to build a business, you often hear advice that says you need more sacrifice, more discipline, and more hustle.
Speaker A:And in this episode, we're talking about a different way, a more aligned way with how our body and mind actually works.
Speaker A:I'm sitting down with Andrea Nakayama and she is the perfect person for this conversation.
Speaker A:Andrea is a functional medicine nutritionist and the founder of Functional Nutrition alliance, who built her entire business while managing Hashimoto's raising her son as a single mom after losing her husband to a brain tumor.
Speaker A:She trains thousands of practitioners worldwide using the same mind body approach she applied to building her own business.
Speaker A:So here's what you need to listen for in this conversation.
Speaker A:First, Andrea shares something called the basecamp3 method.
Speaker A:This is her answer to what to do when everything feels like too much.
Speaker A:Listen for the Mount Everest analogy because it's going to completely shift how you think about growth.
Speaker A:Second, pay attention when we talk about the five Ps, especially purpose and permission.
Speaker A:This is what kept Andrea going when everything else said stop and it's going to help you figure out what actually matters versus what you think you quote unquote should be doing.
Speaker A:And third, listen to the difference between persistence and consistency.
Speaker A:If you've ever felt like you're failing or falling because you can't show up the same way every day, this part is going to give you so much relief.
Speaker A:By the end of this conversation, you'll know exactly how to break down what feels overwhelming into something you can actually move forward with.
Speaker A:So stay tuned.
Speaker B:Allowing ourselves to feel whether it was like baking sourdough or gardening or whatever it might be, where we're in our flow, just remembering what that feels like and carrying it forward.
Speaker C:Welcome to Business with Chronic Illness, the globally ranked podcast for women living with chronic illness who want to start and grow a business online.
Speaker B:Online.
Speaker C:I'm your host, Nikita Williams, and I went from living a normal life to all of a sudden being in constant pain.
Speaker C:With no answers to being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and trying to make a livable income, I faced the challenge of adapting traditional business advice to fit my unique circumstances with chronic illness.
Speaker C:Feeling frustrated and more burned out than I already was while managing my Chronic illness to becoming an award winning coach.
Speaker C:With a flexible, sustainable online coaching business, I found the surprisingly simp steps to starting and growing a profitable business without compromising my health or my peace.
Speaker C:Since then, I've helped dozens of women just like you learn how to do the same.
Speaker C:If you're ready to create a thriving business that aligns with your lifestyle and well being, you're in the right place.
Speaker C:Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for women with chronic illness and how we make a living.
Speaker C:This is business with chronic illness.
Speaker D:I am so excited to have Andrea on the show.
Speaker D:We are going to talk about so many things.
Speaker D:She is an og.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:I was like looking and getting to know you and I was like, she has been in the industry of health and wellness before.
Speaker D:Like the Internet was doing what the Internet does.
Speaker D:So I'm excited to have you here.
Speaker B:That makes me feel really old, but I'm gonna.
Speaker B:I'm just gonna own it.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker D:With so much love because I personally feel like I experienced that as well.
Speaker D:Like, yeah, it's amazing how much things have changed just in the last 10, 15 years.
Speaker D:When it comes to autoimmune diseases, chronic illness, it's just completely different.
Speaker B:Totally.
Speaker D:So please tell us who you are, like how you would describe yourself today.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:So many things.
Speaker B:I am a functional medicine nutritionist.
Speaker B:I'm also a narrative medicine practitioner with a passion to learn about longevity and the intersection of science and art, particularly for women who are experiencing challenges in life.
Speaker B:Ultimately, I think of myself as an artist.
Speaker B:I always was an artist.
Speaker B:I have a background in art, and so what I'm doing is blending science and art of the practice in a way that lights me up and I think poses something a bit different than what we usually get in the health and wellness industry, which is like a list of things to do or what we're supposed to be.
Speaker B:So I. I'm an artist who loves the human being and wants to help people thrive.
Speaker D:I love that so much.
Speaker D:I love that you feel like you identify as a creative person.
Speaker D:I love that.
Speaker D:Is that something you've kind of embraced more over the years or is that something.
Speaker D:Yeah, tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a really interesting question.
Speaker B:I'm doing a lot of writing right now, and as I explore longevity, I'm exploring this visual of the spiral.
Speaker B:How we don't go back to who we were before as we age, but we go back to parts of ourselves that we bring forward.
Speaker B:I was always an artist.
Speaker B:My undergraduate Degree is in art and design.
Speaker B:So I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Speaker B:I went into clinical practice because of my personal experience, but I think I always brought my creativity to the work.
Speaker B:And now as I am aging more.
Speaker B:We're all aging.
Speaker B:But as I continue to age, I'm really embracing the fact that that's what I bring to the equation that sets me apart instead of hiding it behind the clinical work.
Speaker B:I'm kind of saying, wait a minute.
Speaker B:These things exist side by side.
Speaker B:They have superpowers together.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:So such a good point.
Speaker D:There's so much in just what you said.
Speaker D:And also, our audience may not know who you are.
Speaker D:So I'm going to have you share.
Speaker B:A little bit about your story.
Speaker D:But for you, I'm thinking about how your approach to everything that I've learned about you, your approach is very creative in the way you approach taking care of those with autoimmune disorders.
Speaker D:Like, it's very.
Speaker D:And it's a very creative, critical thinking kind of way.
Speaker D:I've noticed.
Speaker D:So that's very interesting.
Speaker D:So tell us a little bit about how you came onto this journey of helping people, but also healing in your own.
Speaker D:In your own way.
Speaker B:Yeah, thank you for asking that and for that reflection.
Speaker B:So for me, there was a time back in my 30s when I was new, newly married, looking to get pregnant with my soulmate Isamu.
Speaker B:And I was starting to feel some things in my own body that I was trying to manage with my diet and lifestyle.
Speaker B:I was already really into food.
Speaker B:I loved cooking.
Speaker B: s back in, you know, April of: Speaker B:That we were pregnant.
Speaker B:So a long time ago, my late husband was also diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Speaker B:So I was seven weeks pregnant, and he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Speaker B:And I started to do my thing, my research thing.
Speaker B:And to your point, there was not the digital age that we live in.
Speaker B:So I was turning to the library and books and little things.
Speaker B:You could see, search on Google.
Speaker B:Was it even Google then?
Speaker B:I didn't even think it was Google.
Speaker D:That's how I feel about Facebook.
Speaker D:I'm like, was Facebook or Instagram even a thing?
Speaker D:I literally asked that all the time.
Speaker B:I know people are always like, brain tumors.
Speaker B:They come from cell phones.
Speaker B:And I'm like, no, we didn't have a cell phone.
Speaker B:Like, there was no cell phone.
Speaker B:Like, we didn't have a cell phone.
Speaker B:And so that really catapulted me into kind of boot camp around, what can we do?
Speaker B:In addition to all the medical things that he's doing doing.
Speaker B:It also really woke me up to some of the gaps in our medical system.
Speaker B:Those two initial gaps that were surprising for me being that people are treated like their diagnosis.
Speaker B:So we are our diagnosis when we walk into a medical situation and that every single person with the same diagnosis is pretty much treated the same.
Speaker B:That there is a protocol A X for Y.
Speaker B:Thinking so.
Speaker B:So those were two little seeds planted in me where I was like, wait a minute, that doesn't seem right.
Speaker B:I know that my husband is not like every other person who has this diagnosis.
Speaker B:And so those were the seeds that led later to me really looking more deeply at health and bio individuality.
Speaker B:So how we are all each different and we might have the same signs, symptoms or diagnoses, but we got there for different reasons.
Speaker B:We may need different roads to resolution.
Speaker B:So a lot of that informed the work that I went on to pursue, that I went back to school, many, many years of school and training for.
Speaker B:And that allowed me to build a practice and then a business where I train thousands of other practitioners in my methodologies.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:Tell us how you did that through your journey.
Speaker D:I'm like, I'm about to tell it, but you please share with us how I mean, are currently and have been for years helping others take the things that you've learned to support other people in their own healing and coming to finding more whole as a person.
Speaker D:But in the mix of that you were also experiencing grief and new situations.
Speaker D:You probably didn't start this journey on thinking it was going to look like.
Speaker D:So share that a little bit with what that might have looked like or what that did look like and feel like.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think that one of the things you're speaking to is what I call the five P's in my teaching.
Speaker B:So we have a passion.
Speaker B:We need to give ourselves permission.
Speaker B:We have to have our purpose which is at the heart of things.
Speaker B:And then it's persistence and perseverance.
Speaker B:So I had a passion for dietary and lifestyle modification.
Speaker B:I had to give myself permission.
Speaker B:And part of giving myself permission was a purpose that was larger than me.
Speaker B:And that purpose that was larger than me is what I saw my late husband go through.
Speaker B:So we saw was given six months to live.
Speaker B:Not expected to see our son born.
Speaker B:He lived almost two and a half years.
Speaker B:That son is now 24 years old.
Speaker B:So this is a long time ago, which is something we can also speak to.
Speaker B:How do we tell our story in a way that allows us to.
Speaker B:To use it as a place of connection as opposed to a place of pity.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I think that a lot of people have this challenge, and I did, too.
Speaker B:But that purpose for me, that there are missing pieces in our health care system, was bigger than me.
Speaker B:It was Isamu.
Speaker B:It was me doing work in his name.
Speaker B:So I think that kept me going past the grief, that.
Speaker B:Past the exhaustion, maybe not good for good or bad, past the limiting beliefs of what I could do because the purpose was so big for me.
Speaker B:And that's what allowed me to continue and to see, like, wait, where is there another crack?
Speaker B:Where is there another opportunity?
Speaker B:Where do I take a next step forward?
Speaker B:So I just want to highlight that purpose piece because I think.
Speaker B:Think that's what gave me the fuel to keep going and to make a difference.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Your purpose is such a huge piece of it.
Speaker D:I love your 5Ps.
Speaker D:I love the passion, I love them all.
Speaker D:But there's three of them that, before I really knew you and before you came into my world, I'm so thankful for.
Speaker D:I have a huge feeling about persistence, and persistence is not something we hear a lot of people talk about within any container, really.
Speaker D:We hear a lot about consistency.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker D:But we don't hear about persistence.
Speaker D:And I've always said I. I will trade consistency for persistence every day.
Speaker D:And I'm curious to hear how have you, in your purpose and your passion, leaned into persistence in building a business when your husband has passed, when you're having a child, going to school, what did that look like, feel like in persistence?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm so curious what persistence means to you, but I'm.
Speaker B:Maybe I want you to tell me.
Speaker B:I would love to hear, but I'll share my thoughts and then you let me know if it's in alignment with your thinking about persistence.
Speaker B:I think of persistence as the continuity of showing up and perseverance as knowing you're going to fall on your face and you get back up again.
Speaker B:So that's exactly.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker B:So I don't know if you're familiar with the Colby test, which is the.
Speaker B:If anybody has people that work for them, you're not a solopreneur, you have support staff in any way.
Speaker B:I highly recommend the Colby.
Speaker B:It's K, O, L, B E. And the Colby test kind of tells us how we work, and there's four major categories.
Speaker B:My category that I'm the highest in is what's called an implementer.
Speaker B:And it doesn't mean that we don't all implement.
Speaker B:It's how we implement.
Speaker B:So we all implement, but how we implement is the difference.
Speaker B:And for me, even though I have very high standards and some people might think of me as a perfectionist, I'm not a perfectionist.
Speaker B:I call it with my team rolling the snowball, I'm not afraid to put something out there and to keep iterating and iterating and iterating to do it publicly, to keep going one thing after another instead of like, you know, working in my basement to make something perfect and then releasing it and expecting people to come.
Speaker B:So I think that implementer for me is a key part of the persistence.
Speaker B:When I said I'm going to start a newsletter and grow an email list again, back in the day, where an email list actually meant something because it doesn't so much today, because people don't open their email as much, I committed to sending a newsletter every single week.
Speaker B:And that was my commitment.
Speaker B:And I made it happen.
Speaker B:Like, this is my commitment to myself.
Speaker B:Persistence.
Speaker B:If I had to have an off week or there was a little bit of a shift, I allowed for that too.
Speaker B:So it's a little bit of breathing room.
Speaker B:But for me, the persistence was roll that snowball.
Speaker B:Don't expect to build Rome in a day.
Speaker B:Continue to build and build and commit to that next step.
Speaker B:One foot in front of the other.
Speaker D:Yeah, that's a. I mean, pretty much on par with what I talk about when I talk about persistence.
Speaker D:I'm curious, in your snowball effect, what would get in the way when you are persisting and how did you have to give yourself permission or what ways did you give yourself permission to do things differently because of your own chronic illness, because your own, you know, life hurdles and circumstances?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I think that when I couldn't follow through, it was because I had bitten off more than I could chew.
Speaker B:And everything I'm saying to you is true of health.
Speaker B:Also, we often expect that we're going to go on a protocol or go on a diet or do some whole thing with loads of supplements that we can't keep up with.
Speaker B:And I would much rather build the skills and the practices that we can then commit to and keep going with.
Speaker B:So another analogy I'll use.
Speaker B:My boyfriend is a climber and he's obsessed with.
Speaker B:Obsessed with all the big climbs like mount.
Speaker B:If he could climb, if his lungs would allow him to climb Mount Everest, he would have right now, but he can't.
Speaker B:But I've since watched like every everest video movie, YouTube documentary, and @ first I was like, why am I watching?
Speaker B:Like, I have no desire to understand climbing.
Speaker B:But what I started to love, in addition to the human element and the stories of people climbing, climbing is this notion of base camps and that we don't climb Mount Everest in a day.
Speaker B:We don't even climb to base camp in a day.
Speaker B:And every base camp requires that you go up to it and go back down.
Speaker B:You go up and down, then you go to the next and down.
Speaker B:And so you're allowing yourself to acclimate.
Speaker B:And what I see amongst my student population who are out there trying to build practices or businesses, whatever their goal is, is that they bite off more than they can chew.
Speaker B:And so in my history, I would find that if I was taking on too much at once, that's where I couldn't commit.
Speaker B:Whereas if I broke it down and told myself this one thing, not the email and the social media and the YouTube and the podcast, like, just choosing and being able to stay consistent with what you're choosing and allow a little wiggle room.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:I have friends who love hiking, too.
Speaker C:I don't understand how I end up.
Speaker D:With friends who like hiking.
Speaker D:I'd be like, I am not going hiking with you.
Speaker B:I will hike.
Speaker B:But climbing, like, you know, ice pick, like, climbing over, like, ladders over fall, like, that's not my thing.
Speaker D:No, that's not.
Speaker B:I'll hike all day long.
Speaker D:I'm like, none of it.
Speaker D:I'm like, give me Pilates, like, put me on a reformer.
Speaker D:But I get it, though.
Speaker D:I get that mindset.
Speaker D:And you're so right.
Speaker D:One of my friends is like, yeah, there's base camps so you can acclimate, so you can find out, like, what your new level of capacity is.
Speaker D:And so that's a really difficult thing, I think, for us to discover.
Speaker D:How, for you, in business with chronic illness, have you been able to find your sense of base camp?
Speaker D:Like, how do you know when you're ready to climb?
Speaker B:Yeah, I have to really, really break it down, like I said, but be super tuned in.
Speaker B:And I think that when it comes to health, we outsource so much of our health that we are missing the clues and the signals of when we are overwhelmed.
Speaker B:I have it still.
Speaker B:I mean, my business is owned by another organization.
Speaker B:I still run it.
Speaker B:There's hard, fast goals.
Speaker B:And when I am asked to do something that feels like it's outside of my realm of expertise or putting me in a box that I don't want to be in, my entire nervous system comes at me like, no.
Speaker B:And I have to, like, stop and listen and say, what is this messaging that I'm experiencing.
Speaker B:I think there's that allowance, that wiggle room that we need to tune into all the time.
Speaker B:I will tell you also, I've been waking up at 4am to write some of the personal writing that it's harder for me to get to during the day for my book.
Speaker B:And last week I had so much going on that I was a no to 4am writing.
Speaker B:And I want to do that writing.
Speaker B:I want to do it so much that it's almost like I'm angry that I have to be a no to the 4am writing, but I have to be in a risk reward conversation all the time.
Speaker B:And I think the only way we can be in that risk reward conversation too much, not right now, is to be tuned in, tuned in to our symptoms, tuned into our nervous system, tuned into our body, mind, soul needs so that we can weigh in any one moment and make sure that what we're committing to in those base camps is achievable.
Speaker D:Yeah, such a good point.
Speaker D:I am curious outside of business and grief and everything that you've been like you're describing here, finding your capacity, listening to your body, like truly listening and actually doing what your body is telling you to do in the setbacks, in the space where you didn't get it quite right, where you did say yes to too many things, where you found yourself almost burnt out from all of the things maybe potentially that you had experienced, what propelled you or what motivated you to keep going.
Speaker D:Because I think a lot of people get stuck in that place of like, especially if you're living with chronic illness.
Speaker D:Especially if you're living because chronic illness is a full time job.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:Like it really is.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker D:Even if you're working with a support team.
Speaker D:And yes, there's so much that comes with just that.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker D:Then you decide to be an entrepreneur, which is also like, what are we crazy?
Speaker D:But also right.
Speaker D:Like all of that is happening at some point.
Speaker D:Was there a moment in your journey, it was like, why am I doing this?
Speaker D:And then how did you move through that?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I love this conversation.
Speaker B:I think I told you I don't often get to talk about being an entrepreneur.
Speaker B:I think it's like a hidden part of my story, even though it's such a big part of my story.
Speaker B:So thank you for asking these questions and allowing me to share that kind of tapestry of my life story.
Speaker B:I think it's really about the passions and I think there were things that I was doing as an entrepreneur that really, really lit up, gave me purpose and meaning and so in the same way that we're tuning in to where our body is saying no and a big no, it's tuning into where our body spirit is saying yes and making room for more of that.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:That's a journey, it's not a destination.
Speaker B:I'm still on that journey.
Speaker B:And I will say that, you know, next month I'll be 59.
Speaker B:I'm more on that journey now.
Speaker B:I'm really recognizing, hey, less of this, more of this.
Speaker B:This is what lights me up.
Speaker B:So I think what motivates us are the things that give us life, they actually purpose, meaning being moved, are as anti inflammatory as some of the things we take or the diets we do or the sleep we get.
Speaker B:So recognizing that what we embrace in our life that feeds and fuels us goes beyond the business, it actually supports the body.
Speaker B:So I think for me it was like the fun not of being an entrepreneur, but of doing the work that mattered to me.
Speaker D:Yeah, that is the work.
Speaker D:When you say the work, what did the work look like, feel like for you?
Speaker B:Yeah, I think in part it was the clinical work for me.
Speaker B:Working with people and being able to almost see like each individual as a nuanced project where we were like together forming something and a journey forward, but then also taking off, kind of stripping off what I was doing in practice in order to teach it to others.
Speaker B:Because I was having successes in clinical practice that others weren't having.
Speaker B:So recognizing that not everybody's gonna think like I do, not everybody's gonna see what I see and figuring out like, okay, how do I take this thing I'm doing and make it more universal and create like systems and frameworks and graphics and ways of thinking that were like, super fun for me to create.
Speaker B:And then the writing, I love writing.
Speaker B:So again, like, not all of my graduates, not all entrepreneurs love writing.
Speaker B:I didn't love marketing writing, but this is where the 5Ps come in.
Speaker B:Because the purpose for me was to do the writing of the teaching and the writing of the clinical care.
Speaker B:And in order to do that, I needed to come into the center purpose of why I was doing it.
Speaker B:So I was like, okay, I can do marketing writing that is content based.
Speaker B:So I'm doing the thing I like for the thing I don't like instead of feeling like I had to figure out some other way to do it.
Speaker B:So for me, the work was the clinical work, the teaching, the creation of curriculum, like that all for me was really fun, really exciting, and I was getting the feedback that it was making a difference for people.
Speaker B:So that continued to fuel the work as well.
Speaker D:Yeah, I'm really curious to know within that work, what mindset specifically, because I'm assuming I might be assuming the wrong assumption that it wasn't always sunshine and roses even doing that work.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker B:It's never sunshine and roses.
Speaker D:I'm like, I think so often I talk to entrepreneurs in general whether you have chronic illness or not.
Speaker D:And I think it's social media's fault.
Speaker D:And I think also it is those thought leaders I think, in the space that make it seem like it is.
Speaker D:So, oh, I just woke up one day and I did these things, and now I'm great.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And we don't talk about the mindset that is required to be okay with it, not working with it, being a fumble with life, lifing.
Speaker D:So what has that looked like for you as far as mindset and growing not just within your business, but also being a mom and living with chronic illness?
Speaker D:How's that look like for you?
Speaker B:Yeah, that's such a good question.
Speaker B:I mean, that's the perseverance piece for me where it's like, okay, that didn't work.
Speaker B:But not taking it personally, not letting.
Speaker B:I mean, even if it gets under my skin skin for a little bit, like, oof, that felt really bad.
Speaker B:That didn't work, that didn't land what happened there.
Speaker B:I feel really awful about that.
Speaker B:But allowing myself to work with that and learn from it and come back into the ring instead of feeling like I have to go in a corner and lick my wounds.
Speaker B:This is also reality.
Speaker B:As a parent, I am, knock on wood, very lucky and have had a fairly easy kid.
Speaker B:Like, if I had to be a single mom who is putting myself back through school while working full time building a business, I got the right kid.
Speaker B:But he would probably say that my meatier child is my work, not him.
Speaker B:And he watched that all being a thing that I was constantly working with.
Speaker B:Even when we'd go to Hawaii to visit his grandfather and I'd be angry, oh, my gosh, I still have to work.
Speaker B:And then I'd be like, okay, but I'm working in my bikini with sand in my shorts, you know?
Speaker B:So, like, okay, this is the reality I have to deal with right now because I was a solopreneur for many, many years, so definitely not sunshine and roses.
Speaker B:And I think that it's just not taking those fumbles personally, but learning from them and seeing what's come up for you when they occur.
Speaker B:And this goes back to the Purpose.
Speaker B:Because if I didn't have that purpose, and it wasn't really in the name of my late husband, in the name of all the people who are sick and not getting better, I might go, oh, it's about me.
Speaker B:Woe is me and I can't do this anymore.
Speaker B:I'm not good enough at it.
Speaker B:For me, I think it's not a. I don't mean to say I'm egoless.
Speaker B:There's plenty of ego.
Speaker B:But it literally is not about me.
Speaker B:So if I mess up, I have a responsibility to look at what happened, what did I do?
Speaker B:Is there a learning I can have from this?
Speaker B:And I'm saying all this in a pretty bow, but it might take weeks or months for me to be like, oh, that didn't work.
Speaker B:What was that?
Speaker B:Why did that happen?
Speaker B:But the thing that would motivate me forward was, how can I do it better?
Speaker B:What can I learn from that?
Speaker B:I still believe in this.
Speaker B:I have so many things that I've done that led to nothing.
Speaker B:I put them out there, they didn't quite work or they came back in some other form or they transmuted over time.
Speaker B:But that body of work, or they're sitting on the shelf now, but that body of work was part of the journey.
Speaker B:And it's not so precious that I'm hanging my entire identity on that one thing.
Speaker D:You know, this is a really interesting.
Speaker D:The way you just shared that hits me a little bit listening to this, because there is an aspect when you are connected to your purpose.
Speaker D:It feels very much like it is something you like.
Speaker D:And I don't want to say like you, but it feels like it's very much a piece of the suit that you're wearing every day.
Speaker D:Like it's the purse, it's the shoes, it's the.
Speaker D:It's something you're wearing every day.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker D:And as you've grown and you've evolved.
Speaker D:You know, we talked a little bit in our, our chat before this call about like post traumatic growth and things how we just change.
Speaker D:I'm curious to hear.
Speaker D:How are you finding yourself able to let go or just move through those things without feeling like a part of you has, I don't know, disappeared or you're like, there's grief sometimes with that.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:How does that look like for you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's so interesting to think about grief.
Speaker B:I've been in Those early morning 4am Writings writing about grief and abandonment and the little places where abandonment has shown up for me.
Speaker B:There's nothing huge in my Life.
Speaker B:There's my mom not being able to find parking when I was 6 years old and in the hospital and being late for visiting hours.
Speaker B:But like that anchored in me.
Speaker B:There's my husband dying.
Speaker B:He didn't abandon me.
Speaker B:He did not abandon me.
Speaker B:But it doesn't mean it doesn't feel like abandonment.
Speaker B:And there's my son growing up and not needing me, choosing me, but not needing me.
Speaker B:And that's probably the biggest sense of abandonment I've been through in the last year where I've been like, whoa, what is this that I'm feeling?
Speaker B:Because a role that I identify with at a cellular level, which is what you're saying we do with our work, is over.
Speaker B:It doesn't mean I'm not a parent.
Speaker B:It doesn't mean I'm not in his life.
Speaker B:But I am not a parent in the way that I identified being a parent for 22 years.
Speaker B:You know, there had to be a shift.
Speaker B:And I think with my work and the body of work, I am still very attached to it.
Speaker B:I am still very much.
Speaker B:There is like is Functional Nutrition Alliance Andrea Nakayama.
Speaker B:Are they the same thing?
Speaker B:Are they separate?
Speaker B:And I'm constantly doing little things to break that apart.
Speaker B:If there are emails that go from Andrea Nakayama, I write them.
Speaker B:They have my signature.
Speaker B:They are subject matter expertise, thought leader emails.
Speaker B:If there's an email that goes from the Functional Nutrition alliance, they are subject matter experts.
Speaker B:They are not thought leaders.
Speaker B:And it shows their subject matter expertise.
Speaker B:If there are emails that go from my sales team, that's a different voice.
Speaker B:They are not subject matter experts.
Speaker B:They are not thought leaders.
Speaker B:They are there to support somebody with their enrollment.
Speaker B:Like they just even breaking it apart to everything doesn't need to be at the level that I would do it.
Speaker B:This thing is bigger than me and I would love for it to continue on and to be a legacy brand.
Speaker B:But that means I still get to think about what is my ideal relationship with that so my work can go on and how does it grow and expand to be something that isn't solely reliant.
Speaker B:So I don't know if that example makes sense, but it's just like one little exercise of where I can take it off and go.
Speaker B:Every single thing isn't the shoes I wear, my hair style, you know, everything isn't that.
Speaker B:There's a piece of it.
Speaker B:It's a company and a brand founded by.
Speaker B:But there are going to be other aspects.
Speaker B:And I'm every day making a like okay or not okay.
Speaker B:And if not okay.
Speaker B:How am I bringing that forward for other people to hold so that I'm not tightly grasping on?
Speaker B:And it's why I use the example of my son.
Speaker B:Because you gotta let go.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:At a certain point, you gotta let go and know you're there to influence, but not control.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker D:Well, yeah, I'm gonna take that one.
Speaker D:I'm gonna sit with that.
Speaker D:Because I think a lot of us, we're always growing and moving through life.
Speaker D:And something that I've really appreciated with having the podcast is the how we tell our stories, how we live our story has such an effect on how far we will actually go and how much we can.
Speaker D:And I know for you, you call yourself a functional medicine story.
Speaker D:Narrative.
Speaker D:I'm sure I'm saying that wrong.
Speaker D:Did I say that right?
Speaker B:I'm a functional medicine nutritionist.
Speaker B:I'm also a practitioner of narrative medicine.
Speaker D:Narrative medicine.
Speaker D:That's what I was getting at.
Speaker D:I love for you to tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker D:What does that look like?
Speaker D:What does that mean in the space?
Speaker D:And has that affected everything you're sharing with me as far as, like, becoming, you know?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Oh, I love that.
Speaker B:That's juicy.
Speaker B:In my teaching, there's something I call the functional nutrition matrix, and it's modeled after the functional medicine matrix.
Speaker B:And people may or may not understand or know what functional medicine and functional nutrition is.
Speaker B:It's really understanding this premise.
Speaker B:Everything is connected in the body.
Speaker B:We are all unique and all things matter.
Speaker B:So everything is connected.
Speaker B:Helps us know our gut's connected to our brain, our liver is connected to our hormones.
Speaker B:All the things in the body are connected.
Speaker B:We are all unique.
Speaker B:Really honors where we came from, what we've lived through, what we know works for us, and all things matter.
Speaker B:Recognizes that sleep matters, lunch matters, stress matters, all the things.
Speaker B:When we're looking at health, it is a puzzle that I see very, very holistically.
Speaker B:And what I realized over time is when I entered the field, and again, this is like 20 years ago, there was a lot of fixation on the all things matter.
Speaker B:What do I do?
Speaker B:What's the diet?
Speaker B:What's the protocol?
Speaker B:What are you doing for exercise, for sleep?
Speaker B:Everything was focused on what I call the skills section.
Speaker B:Over time, in my time in the field, we got more focused on the soup.
Speaker B:And for me, the soup is everything is connected.
Speaker B:It's that gut brain, it's the hormones and detoxification.
Speaker B:Everybody's very focused on what's happening with my mast cells or my histamine or my mitochondria or my methylation.
Speaker B:Like there's a more popularized focus on these internal arenas without understanding that they're part of a whole.
Speaker B:So I saw what I call the soup and the scale being focused on, and I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker B:The story also impacts that internal terrain, how we feel, what symptoms we're experiencing.
Speaker B:So for me, I call it the story, the soup and the skill.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So there's those three areas.
Speaker B:And I felt like I had to go tell the story and bring more forward.
Speaker B:That allows us to really anchor on the bio individuality.
Speaker B:The fact that two people with endometriosis got there for different reasons, they're going to need a different path forward.
Speaker B:Sure, our understanding of the whole thing that's happening in the body may be one thing, but what we do about it as patients, as clinicians is going to be different.
Speaker B:The diagnosis is a tipping point.
Speaker B:So I have Hashimoto's.
Speaker B:That's my chronic illness that I manage.
Speaker B:And no two people with Hashimoto's have the same journey.
Speaker B:What we have in common is that our immune system has turned on us in an autoimmune fashion and started to attack in particular tissues in our thyroid.
Speaker B:That's what we have in common.
Speaker B:There may be similar gross things we can do, but the nuances of what we do really take a more holistic perspective that honors everything about the individual.
Speaker B:Food, access, history, birth stories, trauma, life, big T, little tiny.
Speaker B:What we know helps us, what we know doesn't help us.
Speaker B:What kind of support we have in our lives, all the things.
Speaker B:And that's where those two worlds have come together for me.
Speaker B:Makes sense, right?
Speaker D:It makes sense.
Speaker D:It's also what I've been preaching since I started this show.
Speaker D:I have firmly believed, and I hear what you're saying so clearly, and it makes complete sense to me.
Speaker D:And I think everyone who lives with a chronic illness will agree that, oh, of course, like this makes sense.
Speaker D:And this also the narrative.
Speaker D:Telling your narrative in general is the piece that's often missing in the journey of finding tools, healing, whatever, because no one's actually listening to the story.
Speaker D:And I personally have felt a lot of that.
Speaker D:I've learned more about that through the nervous system work that I've done therapy.
Speaker D:Like, nobody told me to do any of that.
Speaker D:When I got a diagnosis, they just said, you have a diagnosis, and here's some pills or whatever.
Speaker D:Nobody told me, oh, by the way, here's some other things you can do.
Speaker D:And it had nothing to do with necessarily my diagnosis.
Speaker D:So I really appreciate that that's coming into the field of conversation more as it's a baseline to even start.
Speaker B:Well, I'm trying.
Speaker B:I mean, I don't.
Speaker B:I think that at the same time that there is a very masculine, data driven world that's driving things forward in a way that takes us further away from the lifestyle practices, from the tuning in.
Speaker B:We are so tuned out of our own body and symptoms and reactions in favor of what we think is going to give us the answer.
Speaker B:And it's pretty loud and it's louder with social media and media in general and all the noise and all the technology technologies and all the startups and all the businesses.
Speaker B:So I'm trying and I appreciate that you see it, but I don't think it's the sexiest message because we think that something more promising exists in the test.
Speaker B:We can order the wearable, the supplement, the diet.
Speaker B:We think the answer is there.
Speaker B:But that actually to your point of the nervous system leaves us in a sense sympathetic, dominant fight or flight state where we are constantly seeking the next answer.
Speaker B:And the answer to what the next step is is in a quieter space.
Speaker D:Oh, yes.
Speaker B:In my opinion.
Speaker D:I mean, you're not going to get an argument with me because I feel like I've been there, I've been there where you're in that space where you're trying and doing and listening to everybody everything to solve, quote, unquote, the diagnosis.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:And in reality, in my personal experience, I felt like it just caused more harm, it caused more disconnection and it really made advocating for myself even more difficult.
Speaker D:And so until I really took that space of like, no, I need to quiet the noise, even though every doctor and every person was like, you shouldn't do that.
Speaker D:It was the best thing I could have ever done.
Speaker D:It literally was the best thing I could have ever done.
Speaker D:And so it is a powerful thing to think about when it comes to your health.
Speaker D:But I also feel like this applies to your business.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker D:I think we get so much advice on how you should be doing things and, and nobody's like really talking about too much.
Speaker D:I think I talk about this a lot.
Speaker D:But can you sit with yourself and just for a minute and like hear what is uniquely yours to share?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker D:Do you feel like you have in the journey of being an entrepreneur and you're not only just helping people with their health, but you're also helping them start businesses around being functional medicine practitioners?
Speaker D:And how has that your journey been an evolution in supporting them, in finding that quiet space While in a bunch of noise?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, it's hard.
Speaker B:I mean, I will say, like, that's probably one of the most frustrating things I experience with my student and graduate population, that the noise is telling them they have to learn more, they have to be an expert in everything that they need to run this test or that test.
Speaker B:And for me, it's the systems thinking that brings us into the quiet, that helps us recognize that we're filling a gap.
Speaker B:But I've learned to trust that over time.
Speaker B:And we can only, as you said, trust our unique expertise when we are quiet, when we are listening.
Speaker B:So I think that we can't hear or experience our unique gifts unless we're able to exercise them and tap into them.
Speaker B:So in the same way that people are seeking the next test, the next protocol, the next wearable, they're seeking the next trick that they can put into their business model.
Speaker B:Whether it's a business trick, a hack for my people, a new training, a new test that they can run for their patients.
Speaker B:But that's not what sets us apart.
Speaker B:What sets us apart is more authentic and it's more quiet and it's where and how we show up.
Speaker B:And it took me so long.
Speaker B:I'm not, I don't want to pretend that this is something I had from the get go.
Speaker B:Like when I first started practicing, I was like, wait a minute, why are people coming to me like this?
Speaker B:I'm a middle aged widow.
Speaker B:Like, I am not like some, you know, superstar nutrition person.
Speaker B:Like, what is happening?
Speaker B:And what I had to do is kind of slow down and pay attention.
Speaker B:What were they saying back to me?
Speaker B:What was true about me that I wasn't even thinking about because I thought I should be like that person who was the nutrition professional.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I think I've heard in the old days, you've probably heard this, somebody talk about it like, you're free square on the bingo board.
Speaker B:Like, so it's the one that you don't have to place.
Speaker B:It's like just you, right?
Speaker B:And you don't know what that is until you listen to people tell you, I got this from you.
Speaker B:You've done this for me.
Speaker B:And you're like, okay, what did I do?
Speaker B:How did I, how do I receive that?
Speaker B:What's happening here?
Speaker B:And it's not about being what the next person is, it's about what we develop relationally.
Speaker B:That is a feedback loop to what we do.
Speaker D:Yes, I love that point about.
Speaker D:It's a feedback loop.
Speaker D:And it is often the thing we discount.
Speaker B:Don't even think about discount.
Speaker D:We discount.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:We're like, oh, that's nothing.
Speaker D:And you're like, no, but that's the something.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker D:That is the something.
Speaker D:So powerful.
Speaker D:What is the something for you?
Speaker D:What.
Speaker D:What was the something when you got quiet that you're like, oh, that's the something.
Speaker D:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker D:This is the thing that I need to lean into.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think I am a synthesizer, so I think I can take complex information and turn it around to make it interesting and understandable.
Speaker B:And I think I can also do that with the individual.
Speaker B:So I can hear what somebody saying and reflect back to them what they are saying or experiencing in a way that puts it into context and makes them feel seen, heard, and understand themselves better.
Speaker B:So ultimately, I think I'm a synthesizer, but how that plays out is all the other pieces that I put into play.
Speaker B:And going back to the idea of being an artist, I left the field of art and design at a certain time in my life.
Speaker B:I worked in book publishing for many years.
Speaker B:When I entered this space or when I look back on it, I think, like, oh, wow.
Speaker B:I created a business and a platform and a profession where I got to do the thing I always do.
Speaker B:But I did it under the umbrella of something that was completely different than I ever would have imagined.
Speaker B:So I think it's going back in some ways.
Speaker B:And this is something I've been saying to older women as we are aging is like, what are the things you love doing when you were young that you didn't even think about but just gave you joy?
Speaker B:And where are they in your business?
Speaker B:Because the clue is in the feedback loop from others, but the clues are also in our own feedback loops of when we were just in our flow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:So if someone's listening right now and they're like, this sounds great and good, but how do I do that?
Speaker D:Like, how do I, you know, how do I really reconnect or find those things?
Speaker D:How do I listen more?
Speaker D:How do I calm the noise a bit?
Speaker D:And how important is really reflecting on your story in that helpful?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think that if we do understand those five Ps, if I go back to that, I think we all have a passion for what we're doing.
Speaker B:To me, the passion is the given.
Speaker B:It's really focusing on that.
Speaker B:What is the purpose?
Speaker B:What's my.
Speaker B:So that.
Speaker B:Where is that coming from?
Speaker B:That allows me to give myself permission to pursue my passion.
Speaker B:And the permission is a huge piece.
Speaker B:Permission is the thing I see most entrepreneurs really struggling with.
Speaker B:And I Think permission doesn't come when we haven't identified our purpose.
Speaker B:So the purpose, again, is something bigger than you.
Speaker B:It's not so that I can have financial freedom.
Speaker B:It might be so that I can have financial freedom so that I can blah, blah, blah, right?
Speaker B:Like, there's something else there so I can buy my mom a home or so that I can get my family out.
Speaker B:Whatever it is, it's bigger than you.
Speaker B:And so you will do things for that passion that you didn't think you would do because it's bigger than you.
Speaker B:It's not about you.
Speaker B:It's not about your ego or lack of.
Speaker B:It's something bigger in the world that's very meaningful.
Speaker B:So I think that that's one way we can look at, like, okay, I know my passion.
Speaker B:Do I know my purpose?
Speaker B:My.
Speaker B:Why does it feel like f. Yes.
Speaker B:Like I'm doing it for that.
Speaker B:And if not, keep sitting with that.
Speaker B:Like, what really moves you?
Speaker B:The other thing that I think is, like, maybe more tangible is noticing where or when you are in your flow.
Speaker B:Where do you lose track of time?
Speaker B:Maybe it's when you're dancing or listening to music or cooking or out with a friend.
Speaker B:Like, where do those things happen where you're like, oh, my gosh, I just completely lost track of time.
Speaker B:I loved doing that and figuring out how you bring more of those pieces into the work that you have to do every day so that it's a part of the equation.
Speaker B:You're showing up for that piece as well.
Speaker B:And it may be that you don't feel flow in your life right now, and you have to go back to when you were younger and you would lose time.
Speaker B:But we all have a flow of some sort where we are in it.
Speaker B:It's not drudgery, and we love it and we want to do it.
Speaker B:What is that?
Speaker D:More.
Speaker B:More of that?
Speaker D:I love that.
Speaker D:Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker D:I think it's really helpful for people just to hear that it can be found.
Speaker D:I think so many people feel like it's lost, like it's not going to be found.
Speaker D:It's too hard.
Speaker D:It takes too much time, effort.
Speaker D:And I would say to whoever is listening, it's like, you can find that piece.
Speaker D:Just don't put the pressure on it.
Speaker D:Like, you have to find it tomorrow.
Speaker D:I think that's.
Speaker D:I think so many of us are in a.
Speaker D:Again, like a diagnosis.
Speaker D:We're trying to fix this.
Speaker D:We're trying to fix flow.
Speaker D:You can't fix flow.
Speaker B:And it might just be like a thread yeah.
Speaker D:Don't presume to know what your flow is.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker D:And don't discount that you may not have found it or you may have found it and you've been like, no, that's not me exactly.
Speaker B:Like, I don't relate to that.
Speaker B:I mean, I've done so many personality tests where I'm like, no.
Speaker B:And then I'm like, oh, right, yes.
Speaker D:Yeah, I think that's funny.
Speaker D:That's how I am with plants right now.
Speaker D:If you would have asked me a year ago if I was a plant person, I would have been like, no, I'm horrible at plants.
Speaker D:I kill them.
Speaker D:Give me the fake ones.
Speaker D:And a friend gave me a plant and I have like 20 of them now and I love them.
Speaker D:And I'm like, would I be a plant mom versus a pet mom?
Speaker D:It doesn't matter.
Speaker D:The pet next.
Speaker B:I'm going to take you on a hike.
Speaker D:I don't know.
Speaker D:I don't know about that one.
Speaker D:That would be interesting.
Speaker B:You're like, whoa, I didn't think of myself.
Speaker B:But there's plants here.
Speaker D:That would be hilarious.
Speaker D:There would have to be a whole set of things that would go right with that.
Speaker D:Bugs and I.
Speaker D:Woo, girl, you just don't know.
Speaker B:I think, yes, though, you're right.
Speaker B:Like that.
Speaker B:It doesn't always show up in the form we thought it would show up in, is what you're saying.
Speaker B:Like, it's.
Speaker B:It might be that there's things that they're like.
Speaker B:You're like, oh, yeah, I always loved doing that.
Speaker B:I never really thought about that.
Speaker B:But there's a thread in there that we can nurture that lights something up in us because it's telling us something.
Speaker D:Well, I think there's so much in this conversation, whoever's listening, I know that you are getting something, but I have one last question for you, and this is the question I've been asking everybody, which is what is something that you thought was true when you began your journey as an entrepreneur that you no longer believe is true?
Speaker B:Oh, it's almost fairly easy because I think it's that I had to know it all, that there had to be a business plan.
Speaker B:I had to have all the expertise.
Speaker B:And that is so far from the truth.
Speaker B:You have to.
Speaker B:To build as you go and learn.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:So true.
Speaker D:You're not the only one who said.
Speaker D:Has said this.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah, we all have that.
Speaker D:That narrative that it has to be perfect.
Speaker D:So it's not going to be like, it's not even that.
Speaker D:It has to be.
Speaker D:It's not going to be.
Speaker D:So how can we find you?
Speaker D:How can they connect with you?
Speaker D:I know you have a book coming out soon or you're working on a book.
Speaker B:Not soon.
Speaker D:I'm like, I'm like, am I putting this out there?
Speaker D:I'm like, I hear you talking about writing for yourself chapters.
Speaker D:I'm like, tell us how we can connect and support you.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:You can always find me on all the platforms at Andrea nakayama so andrea nakayama.com andrea nakayama on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Speaker B:I'm not on TikTok, but I should be.
Speaker B:Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Speaker B:I have an idea for how I could be on TikTok, but it's not time.
Speaker B:Andrea Nakayama all the places that will lead you back to the Functional Nutrition alliance, which is the business that I founded.
Speaker B:So one Stop shopping if you follow my name.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:Okay, beautiful.
Speaker D:Well, thank you so much for being on and thank you for sharing your story with us.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me.
Speaker B:So much fun.
Speaker C:That's a wrap for this episode of Business with Chronic Illness.
Speaker C:If you would like to start and grow an online coaching business with me, head to the Show Notes to click a link to book a sales call and learn how to make money with chronic illness.
Speaker C:You can also check out our website at www.CraftedToThrive.com for this episode's Show Notes and join our email list to get exclusive content where I coach you on how to chronically grow a profitable business while living with chronic illness.
Speaker C:Until next time, remember, yes, you are Crafted to thrive.
Speaker B:Sam.
