IIN Mega Conference Recap #2

Hey guys!

Time to talk about the rest of the conference and my mini-LA-getaway! Sorry for the delay but I was slaving away over eBook #2: Raw Food Made Easy (due early April)!

Make sure to check out the first recap as well!

I’ll kick off with some pictures that will make you hate my guts.

Dinner at Cafe Gratitude with my IIN europe gal pals!

My plate :p we had the chef send out 8 of his favorite dishes and we all shared <3

What are you grateful for?

(I am the one in the red blazer… and yes that is a glass of wine. It took me all of a half a glass to get hammered, lol. I am so cheap)

I am certainly grateful for this memorable evening….

And my juicy living here in LA:

Yogi cats go global!

Sunday: Eric Barron, Stacey & Carey, Yogi Seane Corn, Paul Pitchford & John Robbins

I love how IIN totally lived up to their bio-individuality (one persons food is another persons poison) theory. From pro-meat and anti-carb (Sisson, Taubes) to pro-raw (Wolfe) to anti-raw, sort of (Pitchford) and veganism (Pitchford and Robbins). The Saturday was also a lot about business building and marketing, subjects I so happen to love…

Eric Barron: Better Understanding Your Clients Using D.I.S.C

Who is Eric Barron? Oh only the funniest guy you’ll ever meet, and he was here to teach us all about different personality types to better connect with (and serve) your clients. There is D for dominant, I for influence (socializer), Compliance (thinker) and Steady (relater). Barron, a classic and aggressive D explained how he, being a typical dominant D, like to be in control but at the same time like to be taken control of and subsequently had the whole crowd cracking up. How this works in the client-coach relationship? He explained how to convince a D to work with you (no story-telling, be straight to the point. What are we going to accomplish, in how long and what will it cost me?). No airy-fairy fuzzy stuff please. While coaching D’s, make sure to let your confidence shine through. Don’t ask D’s what they think, you are the professional here and they will lose their trust in you. How awesome is it to understand thins like this?

Stacey Morgenstern and Carey Peters: How do I turn my calling into a career

Stacey and Carey are these two awesome chicks who turned their passion into a 6-figure income and now help other holistic entrepreneurs to do the same with their program HolisticMBA. Since they are both IIN graduates they have close connections to the school and set a free webinar for us to attend after the conference <3

“Success does not take sacrifice”

“Health coaching is a BARGAIN no matter what you charge”

“Food is such a powerful doorway to transformation”

“Narrowing your niche is scary, but must-do for health coaches”

“What’s the impossible that we can make possible?

Seane Corn

This beautiful, bold and energetic Yogini blew us all away with her speech. She walked in, sat down on a chair and began by let us doing some stretching and breathing, to get us in a receptive state. She talks about a hundred miles an hour so there was little I wrote down, instead I just enjoyed thoroughly her beautiful words.

“We are not here to fix people, but to guide them”

“Abundance will come if you are sincere in your intentions”

Everything happens at the right time, also for your clients”

“Don’t make it about the money. Serve, in order to elevate other people’s consciousness.”

“This work is about creating a world that we all want to live in”

Paul Pitchford: Priorities in Healing

I was super ecstatic to find out Paul Pitchford, author of the legendary ‘Healing with Whole Foods‘ was a speaker for our event as well. He started by doing some Tai Chi on stage and then gave a very eye-opening talk. He mentioned how he is a vegan and proponent of vegetarian diets but there is a need for meat for certain people. Raw and vegan diets are very cleansing and only a good idea if you have a healthy, strong body or if you are dealing with serious illness (but those people better consume more cooked and animal foods after a raw vegan cleanse). I also loved how Pitchford talked about Ayurveda and raw foods. Ayurveda is not a fan of raw food, but Pitchford explains how he thinks that in this day and age, raw foods are definitely healthy and essential. Times have changed, and we are in need of more fresh foods and cleansing.

He mentioned quite a few interesting things in his talk, like how genetics are fluid and can be switched on or off. I had heard of this before, but I was blown away when he cited a study in which 543 disease-promoting genes had been switched off and 48 disease-fighting genes had been turned on by eating a Sattvic diet (sattvic = pure and balancing in Ayurveda and includes things like fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, and raw dairy, non-sattvic are alcohol, coffee, meat, refined sugar, fried food, etc). By the by, things like exercise and your thoughts also have an impact on the state of your genes!

Paul Pitchford also touched on the whole carb/sugar debate and mentioned something quite interesting which was in stark contrast with the rest of the speakers. Low carb diets can weaken your immune system and your brain (I agree, since our brains run on pure glucose, aka sugar). Polysaccharides (complex carbs) coat and protect all body cells against viruses (just don’t eat refined sugars as they create inflammation and lower your immune system). Complex carbs on the other hand or often anti-inflammatory and regulate immune systems, and protect neurons. Good sources of polysaccharides: whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit, algae, mushrooms, aloe vera.

“Begin with awareness and intention”

“Get to know yourself before you start any ‘diet’ “

“See the presence and energy of food”

“The Universe gives, so we need to give too”

“Meat is good for the body, but bad for the bodhi [spiritual awareness]“

John Robbins: Less Pain, More Love

I am pretty sure John Robbins, my hero and author of ‘Diet for a New America – How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth‘ (the book that converted my to veganism, lol) got the whole audience in tears at the end of his touching talk (don’t deny it!).

Robbins told the story of him and his father, Irvine Robbins, the co-founder of the world’s largest ice-cream conglomerate: Baskin-Robbins. Growing up, John Robbins was expected to take over and run the company his father and hus Uncle, Burt Baskin, had created. But when Burt Baskin died at the super young age of 54 of heart attack, John began to question if ice-cream (dairy + refined sugar) could be responsible for his uncle’s premature death. He began doing research and decided he didn’t want to sell something that might be making people sick, resulting in John and his father had a huge fall-out and they didn’t speak for several years.

When John wrote the book ‘Diet for a New America’ (I can’t recommend this book enough, though it’s not a fun read by any means…), he send a copy to his father, though he suspected he would never read it. In the meantime, Irvine Robbins had fallen profoundly sick himself, with a debilitating case of type 2 diabetes (now to be known to be caused by diet and lifestyle choices but not back then). Irvine had become impotent and was facing amputation of his foot because of his diabetes. When he went to see hos doctor, the top cardiologist in the States at the time, he gave him a book that might help him… can you guess which book? Irvine Robbins slowly began implementing the wisdom laid out in the book, gradually cutting out all animal products and refined sugars. Irvine’s diabetes went into remission, he went off his meds and he lived healthfully for another 20 years, and restored the contact with his son. John gave his dad less pain, more love.

I know right? Are you crying too now? (If not; you are dead inside!)