Margaret Wallis-Duffy on Leading the Preventative Health Movement & Redefining Integrative Care

Zane Myers (00:00)
fifth degree, but good questions. Hopefully they'll be good questions. Okay, so welcome to the next episode of The Holistic Entrepreneur and where we have Margaret Wallace Duffy with us. And let's just launch in and tell me what you do.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (00:03)
See you

What do I do? Well, you know, that's a loaded question and I love it because I'm passionate about preventative and integrative health, but sort of a concise sort of background. My background is kinesiology, University of Waterloo. I'm also a proud registered massage therapist here in Toronto, Canada. And I owned Wallace for Wellness, an award-winning preventative and integrative health clinic for 30 years.

⁓ When I sold my clinic three years ago, I really sold it to do more legacy work, to take all that I'd learned, which I'm sure we're going to talk a little bit about today, all that I'd learned clinically and from an entrepreneurial and business acumen perspective, but most importantly, my passion for advocacy in preventative and integrative health. And so now I'm the visionary behind Preventative Health Awareness Month and Movement, short form FAM.

recognized by Health Canada, PHAM, join the family. And I've also been instrumental with a ⁓ partner from Osteosound bringing a new bone scan to Canada from Europe. That's a game changer. Talk about preventative and integrative health. This bone scan is literally a game changer in my passion for musculoskeletal health and prevention.

⁓ I'm doing that. And then what else do I do? I do a lot of this. I do a lot of media work. I do a lot of corporate speaking and I do a lot of business mentorship for other practitioners like me so that they can love what they do, have success at what they do and have what I love to call two types of currency. The currency that pays our bills, which is important, but the one that matters most to me, the currency even.

Zane Myers (02:00)
So I want to start with the last thing you mentioned, ⁓ helping other practitioners learn to love what they do, because I talked to quite a few different people. to varying degrees, some of them kind of ⁓ love it on some days, and you can't love it every day all the time. But ⁓ some of them just don't. I mean, they're unhappy. Maybe they kind of like what they do, but things are not turning out the way that they had hoped.

either business-wise or you know maybe running their office or you know their employee problems or you know their finances aren't maybe what they had hoped. So let's talk about about that part of it because that's a really big issue. I mean when we're talking ⁓ a large group of practitioners ⁓ that aren't happy.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (02:53)
You know, absolutely, and I love delving into this aspect of it because to me, it really is the foundation of all success. And where does that begin and where does it ignite? I think it ignites the foundation of passion and purpose because you can be really good at something. You can be a clinician, a great practitioner, be clinically sound and all of the things. But if it's not built on a solid foundation of purpose and a big why that you're crystal clear on.

Yes, as you said, as entrepreneurs, as business people, ⁓ and as healthcare professionals, we're gonna have bad days, how human of us. But here's what I know to be true. If you are rooted in your purpose and your passion, and you are very clear about that, ⁓ it fuels you every day, and it builds on it every day. And it really does, with persistence, lead to success and fulfillment.

And that doesn't mean, and here's the other thing, Zaina, know, fulfillment and success isn't just the money in your bank account. That's a big part. But it's also that currency of impact and understanding what your goal was. And often I think it comes from, in my case, it's from my own personal story. That is my why and what has fueled my success for 33 years and counting. So I think when I talk to other practitioners and I'm mentoring or coaching other practitioners,

We spend a lot of time initially really understanding ⁓ who they are, self leadership, what is their passion? What fires them up? Why did they start this business to begin with? And then we build from there. But if you aren't clear on that, and I never cease to amaze me, how many people aren't crystal clear on what fires them up? What is their differentiating factor? Because that's where it usually comes from. What makes you uniquely you?

makes you different from everyone else. Well, if you're not clear about yourself, you can't articulate what's different about you. Therefore, you can't be as successful in business. And I truly believe that when you speak from the heart and you lead from the heart, ⁓ you attract incredible things, both from a financial perspective and from a fulfillment perspective.

Zane Myers (05:10)
So tell me about leading from the heart. What does that mean?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (05:16)
You know, so I think it really, think in life a lot of people, because we have to pay our bills and it's an important aspect for sure. Some things we have to do just because we have to do it and we have to be persistent at it. Just because we don't like something. I spoke to a whole group of massage therapists. I did a webinar for a group of massage therapists from across North America yesterday. And one of the women were saying, one of the therapists said, you know, well, I don't love public speaking and I, or,

or when I talked about speaking confidently, she said, but I don't like that. Well, just because you don't like something doesn't mean that you can't flex your muscle and get better at something. So where do you get the motivation to do that? Well, I think it comes from going inward and finding our story. So my passion for preventative and integrative health and really my life's work, Zane, has come from my own personal health story. And when you have...

Because what's business, right? Business is about solving a problem, bridging a gap where there's, how do you help someone else? Well, in my case, my own health had been taxed significantly as a young girl. In fact, I went over a decade being misdiagnosed and mistreated by the conventional healthcare system because I didn't look sick. But I knew in my heart of hearts, something was seriously wrong with me. And as a young girl, this is 40 plus years ago, I was a competitive athlete. ⁓

only child. I was called everything from a only child to a drug seeking teen, know, only child with a nervous stomach to a drug seeking teen to a competitive athlete. needed to just get a hold of my nerves when in fact I knew in my heart of heart something was seriously wrong with me. I don't know how I was saying that many years ago I found the courage to speak out and speak my truth and say, I'm not leaving this hospital to you find out what's wrong with me because there's something seriously, seriously wrong. And I was right.

And when I got that diagnosis and what led, what I had to walk through prior and after 10 surgeries, four bowel obstructions, a lung collapse at a rare case of endometrial tissue on my lung. went through menopause at 39. I just turned 58. I even am one of the first people in Canada to have a successful fecal transplant because I almost died from a hospital born infection called C. difficile. Why am I telling you this story? Because it's the foundation and the launch pad.

of the lessons that literally taught me that if it wasn't for conventional medicine, I wouldn't be speaking to you. I needed it. When I needed that nasal gastric tube, I was grateful for conventional medicine. But equally, and is profoundly true, if it wasn't for complementary medicine, notice I didn't say alternative. You'll never hear me use that word. I wouldn't be speaking to you either. And so what I wanted to do, because 33 years ago, preventative integrative holistic health was not a thing. In fact,

Zane Myers (08:07)
Mm-hmm.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (08:07)
My own family thought I was hugging the tree and howling at the moon. What do mean you want to open this preventative and integrative health point? What is that? But I knew at my core from my own lived life experience that we could do something different. We needed to break down the silos in healthcare. We needed to bring both sides of the equation together, but with one mission in mind. And that was to put the everyday person at the center of their care, educate them, empower them so they can advocate and be the CEO of their health.

That's what I did with Wallace for Wellness. But I gotta tell you Zane, when I first opened the clinic, I wouldn't even hang my postgraduate diploma in massage therapy because it said masseuse. And I didn't see myself as that. I had a vision, but that vision started in my gut, in my soul, because I didn't want others to go through what I had. And I knew that with everybody working together, how it helped me. And therefore I wanted to show others. And I accomplished that when I sold my clinic three years ago.

We had 45,000 patients in our database and 80 to 90 % doctor referral because I'd earned the respect of my colleagues in conventional medicine.

Zane Myers (09:16)
So I gotta stop you right there because that statistic to 80 to 90 % referral, if you're in complementary medicine, whether you'd call it, I guess I should resist calling it alternative medicine anymore. And actually, complementary medicine is traditional medicine if we really characterize it correctly. But if you're in complementary medicine,

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (09:25)
Thank

Correct?

Zane Myers (09:45)
They're not getting those kinds of results. How would you get those? How do you get those kinds of results? And what would you tell somebody that they could do to get those kinds of results?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (09:57)
with doctor referrals in particular? Yeah, so it's called earning respect by getting outcomes. So it's action, right? It's showing through your work the results that you can get, but then boldly stepping forward and sharing it. And I did that in the early days in all kinds of ways. I did lunch and learns for doctors to talk about who I was, what I do and how I could help them, how I could solve a problem that their patients had.

Zane Myers (09:58)
Yeah.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (10:26)
that perhaps they didn't have the skills to have. It was about getting results and then picking up the phone and calling the physician to say, you know, I just saw, treated your patient X, Y, and Z, and I want you to know this is what I did. This were my results. And I'd be more than happy to connect with you to discuss this further. I took every opportunity, Zane, to get out in the public, to share my passion for what I did as a therapist.

I did free speaking engagements to anybody that would listen. I did a whole banana bread bake. This was back years ago. How do you get to a doctor's office to refer you? ⁓ When, you know, I wanted to bring referral pads, but I knew if I just mailed, snail mailed, because it was before computers, ⁓ referral pads, would probably end up in the garbage. And it was a waste of money. So what did I do? I put on a business suit.

Zane Myers (11:14)
Mm-hmm.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (11:23)
and I brought a marketing letter, my letter to the physician. I had my referral pads, I baked banana loaves, and I walked in to doctor's offices where there were groups of physicians, and I introduced myself to the office manager, told them who I was, told them what Wallace for Wellness was about, told them how we worked together, better together, ⁓ with other healthcare professionals. Here's what we could do to help assist whatever it be, the rheumatologist, the...

gastroenterologists, the family physician, the nutritionist, like we're working together because I believe we all have a seat at this table. And I believe that to my soul, for myself as well.

Zane Myers (12:02)
So really, to me, you're making, I think that everybody's into this digital marketing. I don't mean to diss it, it's really great. You can reach out to a lot of people. Sometimes what they say, I'm called pressing the flesh, shaking hands, although there's even less of that, which I kind of miss. But sometimes just that face-to-face interaction, there's just.

There's nothing like it.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (12:33)
So I couldn't agree more. And don't get me wrong. certainly the digital world and I use it a lot and I'm grateful for it because it's a platform to educate and that's I'm passionate about. can reach more people and that's good. But I'm a massage therapist with a background in kinesiology. I put my hands on people for a living. And there is, you you can look at this in all kinds of ways, but we certainly know physiologically that the laying on of hands or the face to face changes people, physiology.

changes their hormones. And so, you know, the original FaceTime that our kids have is actually FaceTime and there's nothing replacing that. Does it take a little bit more effort? Of course it does. But how do we earn trust and build credibility if we're not willing to roll up our sleeves and do the work to get face to face with your colleagues, to earn the respect? Zayn, I never believe to this day, 33 years in.

I'm really confident in my clinical skills. I'm very confident in them. But I have to earn the respect of every patient I see, even if I've seen them a thousand times, every time they're on my table, just like I earned the respect of that physician that's referred for me for years. I don't take it for granted. And therefore building relationships in community, that's another thing I'm huge on, in business and in life, community is critical. And that's what we have to do. So you're absolutely right.

I went old school and then I layer now the digital on top of that, but that doesn't mean I still don't go old school. You'll still see me whenever I can be face to face in a room with people talking, connecting, meeting, discussing, brainstorming, whatever it is, whatever the focus is, it's critically important, but we can do both. But to just hide behind a screen or stay in your treatment room.

you're not going to get the same impact and that's going to require you to get a little uncomfortable and so be it. That's where growth happens. Absolutely. You know, a lot of people.

Zane Myers (14:40)
in the outside of your comfort zone. that's that is the truth.

If you can live outside

your comfort zone, then you're really gonna grow as a person.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (14:50)
You know, absolutely. And I don't mean for people to be constantly in a state of stress. But if you always live in a comfort bubble, we can't expand and grow. I literally to this day, every day, try to do something, one thing that challenges me in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable. Whether that's picking up the phone and having that conversation or

doing a pitch to somebody that I've been ruminating about for a long time, but I'm like, ⁓ because the imposter syndrome might come up and ⁓ maybe I shouldn't, or maybe it is doing a workout that I thought, you know, I'm not capable of doing, but I push it anyway. I always try, I always, the saying I always use is live where the butterflies are, because that's where the magic happens. And it really is rewarding, because that's to me, Zane, how we build resilience in life and in business.

Zane Myers (15:43)
Margaret,

I like that little ⁓ term you phrased there, for the butterfly. Or what did you say? Look for the...

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (15:52)
where the butterflies are because that's where the magic happens. Yeah. Yeah.

Zane Myers (15:55)
Yeah, that's

great. It's absolutely true. So I spent a good part of my life in ⁓ the medical device business and working with clients and it was ⁓ nothing but butterflies all the time.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (16:11)
Yeah, and I think it really helps us to grow mentally and physically, it also helps us, like I said, build resilience. But what it also does, it keeps us motivated unless, you know, a lot of people get, I think, burnt out or stuck because they're not doing new things, because they're always doing what they've always done, because it's simple, because it's comfortable.

But when we start to really be able to, and I don't love the word pivot because we heard it way too much in COVID, but having the ability to change and shift directions and be open to new ideas with the way you do things, the way you approach something, even the way you might ⁓ think about things, it really helps us to, when life happens for us, which happens a lot.

we're able to say, okay, even though this is hard, I know all the various times I've had to do things differently and I'm still standing, I've got a bit of a shield and a resilience because I've done it. But if you always stay just in this lovely comfort zone, then when real life things show up, it can be a tsunami and really literally paralyze people. It's the best things happen at the other side of fear.

And I know it's a hard place to be, but facing those fears and walking through it. I've got incredible parents. Rest my father's soul, he was a phenomenal and amazing entrepreneur and a great man. He's been gone for nine years. And my mother is equally as my cheerleader and I've learned so much from her. In fact, integrative health is one of the first things. She exemplified it when I was a young girl. I was watching my mom doing yoga before it was cool to do yoga. was watching my mom,

grow alfalfa sprouts in the kitchen and everybody thought she was crazy. My mom led by example, but what my parents always taught me is that it failed forward and often. And don't be afraid, not just don't be afraid to fail, but the question is just learn from it. And it's okay. But if you stay back here because you're worried you're going to fail or you don't try, the only thing you will regret is not having tried.

In life, those are the regrets, right? In business or in relationships or in your own self-love. You only regret what you didn't try, even when you fail. And quite frankly, I've learned the most, the most, and translated that into success in some of the most difficult times in my life when I failed the most. And I don't see it as a failure, but an opportunity. And my parents... my gosh, I've got millions of examples.

Zane Myers (19:01)
So give me an example of that.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (19:07)
⁓

Zane Myers (19:09)
where you turn failure into something positive.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (19:12)
So so and I I really hate the word failure because you know, what's failure? It didn't rise to the occasion of what your expectations were. You maybe didn't get the outcome you wanted But it's all about the way we position that so I'll give you an example. So one of the ways that I built my business Before computers remember there's thing called fax machine But there still is for doctors, which makes me crazy the fact that our conventional medical

Zane Myers (19:34)
yeah.

I remember when

they came out, when I saw my first fax machine, I thought, this is crazy. You can put a paper in over here and it goes out over there. It was like wild.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (19:44)
I'm saying, right?

Yeah.

Right. But it's crazier that we're still using that in medical system. But I digress. That's a whole other podcast. However, I for in the early days of my clinic, I didn't have money for marketing. I had a passion. I had a voice to share. I had clinical skills that I wanted to get out there. And in Canada, there was a show called Cityline. It was a nationwide show, Lifestyle and Health. And they had a health and family day every Wednesday.

and the person that was the host of the show, very well known radio and television celebrity here in Canada. Well, what did I do? Every day for a year, I faxed in ⁓ a letter to their show saying they needed to have me on Health and Family Day. Myself and some of my practitioners, here's what I could bring, here's the education I could share, and I just kept doing it and kept doing it and it kept doing it.

I think finally, after almost a year, they're like, this woman's not going away, she's nuts. And it was a live TV show. So they weren't gonna have me on live, but they ended up coming and actually coming to my clinic, which was even better, and shooting some ⁓ segments that aired on the show taped, which now opened. And I was scared, I'd never done TV. I had no idea what I was doing. But I walked through the fear with the passion I had, even when I wasn't really sure where it was gonna land.

That led to me going in studio and being a regular guest on a live television show. That led to me becoming a media spokesperson for many big companies like Johnson & Johnson and others. But getting to the story of failure, but it's not really failure. After I had done all that and I had never hosted a live show, it's very different being the guest on a show than it is interviewing and being the host. It's a very different skill set.

I could speak for my passion about my knowledge, but to have to be on a live TV show with an earbud in my ear from the control room, cameras all over, I'm interviewing you, Zane, for example, and I've got to listen to, look to camera two, listen to the person in my ear to throw the commercial in two minutes and do all the things while continuing to interview the person that's in front of me and look like I was doing it seamlessly when I've had no training. But guess what I did?

I did it anyway, and you know what? It may be on the internet still somewhere to this day. Hopefully it's buried somewhere. But I remember thinking I was going to literally be sick to my stomach, Zane, because do you think I did an outstanding job the first time? Absolutely not. It was awful. My heart was, I swore people could see my heart beating out of my chest. I was not on my game. But here's the thing.

I could have taken that and said, my gosh, that was the worst experience of my life. I'm so embarrassed. I'm going to just crawl away and hide under a rock. I never do that again. Or I could do like my parents have taught me, fail forward because it's not a failure if you use it for opportunity. What could I learn from that? What did I do well? What didn't I do well? How could I prepare differently? Who can help me? How could I learn more? Where do I get more help?

and you flex the muscle of learning because you have to be new at things just because you're not good at it. We're not good at everything. Well, I now can host a live show with somebody in my ear and I can master it. was a skill. But if I had just said, my gosh, that was embarrassing. I'm out because it was really uncomfortable, like horribly uncomfortable. And it went on air. Like for all to see.

Zane Myers (23:34)
Yeah.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (23:38)
I had an opportunity for growth and for learning. And I got to tell you that has led really to a very fulfilling, when I say media career, I've been on many national television shows, many national radio shows, love doing things like this. Because what do I see all of these mediums as their platform for education? And that's one of my passions. So that's what I use it for.

Zane Myers (24:06)
So tell me about your business that you're doing right now.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (24:13)
Yeah, so I

Zane Myers (24:14)
And what

it's it's it's in and that's the the pre ham. Pam P. H. A. So OK, it's preventative and then.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (24:20)
FAM, PHAM, yep. And Health

Awareness Movement. Well, it's a month and a movement.

Zane Myers (24:28)
So that's

what my shorthand is really just not very good.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (24:32)
No problem.

So FAM, Preventative Health Awareness Month, which happens every February, where for the entire month of February, we now have over 70 FAM ambassadors, which are healthcare professionals from both sides of the coin, conventional and complementary medicine, doctors and surgeons and naturopaths and massage therapists, mental health professionals and physios and all people that are giving of their time for

Every day during February, we have different themed weeks and then different focus days. So we have a bone health day, we have a mental health and addiction day, we have a women's health day. And for the entire month, free education online. I've got a podcast called Famcast. It's also a television show that airs here on the airways in Canada. And then as soon as March 1st hits, it becomes a movement. So all year long, we do all different types of

education. Now it's a grassroots, it's Health Canada recognized, which I'm very proud of. Health Canada is a rigorous, I mean, to have you go to Health Canada website and you look up the, ⁓ the health education days and months. FAM is there. I'm very, very proud of that, but it's not funded. This is a passion project, but I'm an entrepreneur, but I true here we go, currency of impact and the currency that pays our bills. So am I being paid for FAM? No, I'm not. However,

Is it opening up doors and it's connecting me with all kinds of people and we're making a difference? We're sitting at government tables and lobbying for changes of policies so that we can have investment in prevention. Am I sitting with other healthcare professionals, cardiologists and learning from one another and growing from one another and creating that opportunity? Yes. Is that leading to speaking engagements and workplace wellness programs that I'm compensated for? Yes. But it's all within that laneway.

Zane Myers (26:11)
Mm-hmm.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (26:30)
of my passion because as we talked about earlier in our conversation, when you lead from a place of integrity in your heart, doors will open and you will find the way to create the income. The other piece that I'm doing, which is part of FAM, is the bone scan clinic, or bone scan that I was talking about. Osteosan, which is the ⁓ new REMS bone scan, which is coming.

Zane Myers (26:53)
So tell me

about what, ⁓ so it does a bone scan. So this was over in Europe. Is it in the US?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (27:00)
It sure is. It sure is. Now it's only been in North America for about the last three years. However, it's been in Europe since 2009. And here's why it's a game changer, Zane. So REMS, so the current test for, standard test for looking at your bone mineral density or your T score is called the DEXA. Okay. And it's an X-ray. Now it only looks at your quantity of bone.

Zane Myers (27:07)
So what is it?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (27:29)
What's different about the REMS, which stands short form for ⁓ radio frequency echographic multispectrometry. That's why you call it REMS for short. REMS is ultrasound, but why is it different from a DEXA? Well, DEXA's X-ray, it's usually in Canada, 65 and up, unless you break and then they send you for an X-ray, send you for a DEXA.

Zane Myers (27:40)
Hahaha

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (27:58)
The Dexa has a lot of errors. REMS has less positioning errors, less calibration errors. There's no radiation because it's ultrasound. It's more sensitive than Dexa, but here's the differentiating factor that's very different and that excites me as a therapist who works in musculoskeletal health, and that's this. It doesn't just look at density of bone, how much bone you have, but rather the micro architecture, the bone quality and strength. Why does that matter?

Well, peak bone mass happens around the age of 30, and we start to lose bone as we age. However, bone quality or strength, according to the mounting research, is showing that it's a better predictor. Quality or that fragility score is a better predictor of whether you'll fracture, a fragility fracture, than how much bone. So here's a little analogy, because I'm a visual learner. So if you think of your bone mineral density, your T score is a brick wall.

It's dense, it's mortared, it's strong. You're not worried about it falling over. Now in your mind's eye, bring the Eiffel Tower next to that brick wall and stand back and look at the Eiffel Tower. There's a lot more holes in this structure, isn't there, compared to this mortared, dense brick wall? But here's what the research is saying, Zane. Even though there's less bone here than here, if the remaining bone that's left over is strong and the quality is good, you are less likely to fracture. You're not worried about the Eiffel Tower falling over.

Zane Myers (28:59)
Mm-hmm.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (29:25)
even though it has less structure than this brick wall, because it's made of steel. But here's the empowering and exciting piece. And as a massage therapist with a background in kinesiology, what got me excited when Megan Bermester, the founder of Osteosound, came to me and said, Marv, will you partner with me? Because your passion for education and prevention and me knowing the musculoskeletal ⁓ system and her being an ultrasound sonographer, medical sonographer.

We have, we control our bone quality because bone quality is linked to lifestyle, which is in our control. Are we eating enough protein? Are we lifting weights and moving our body? What's our gut doing? What's our thyroid doing? You know, are we eating enough protein? All of these things. So you can lose bone, but you can keep your bones strong through preventative means and lifestyle. And we can prevent osteoporosis and prevent the fractures.

which increases ⁓ mortality rates, which decreases quality of life and three strains the system. It's one of the best preventative tools and the research is coming along. I'm excited because we're bringing it to Canadians in a big way. that's the other piece of my business that I'm doing now that I don't have my bricks and mortar clinic, but I still have a clinic. It's just virtually and to the masses when I speak and teach, do the REMS and preventative health movements.

So it's all interconnected.

Zane Myers (30:54)
Do you have any courses or anything like that that you sell?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (30:57)
Yeah, so here's such an exciting announcement and thank you for asking.

Zane Myers (31:00)
This

is not a, just for anybody who's watching, this was not a setup plug. That's just actually asking the questions.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (31:04)
No, no and I

love that because because I'm passionate about education and reaching and have always been even as a clinician I treated today. I was treating today, you know, not bone scan, I was actually doing massage therapy today. I always reach beyond my treatment room walls and try to stock the toolbox of the people I have the privilege of treating because they don't, they're not on my table every day so then they got to go home and they got to live their lives.

So I have had for many years, an LMS, a learner management system that I share education on, but very soon, and I'm so proud, it's been many years in the works, the Become the CEO of Your Health hub is launching. This hub will not only have transformative courses, the signature course Become the CEO of Your Health, which is full of, I'm so proud of this. It's been a long time coming, I'm very proud of it. But this portal also has,

a micro library, a self-care library full of education from a wide range of healthcare professionals because you can't just have one member on your healthcare team. Say you have diabetes, you don't just need an endocrinologist. Perhaps you need somebody like me for your musculoskeletal system. You might need a nutritionist. So this portal will have all kinds of education that you are going to be able to get into the driver's seat of your health. Plus we're gonna have live webinars

So you have access to all of these spambassidaries, these incredible practitioners, doctors and surgeons, so you can speak to them. But really placing the onus on you to improve your health esteem by educating you so that you can get into the driver's seat and be the most important member of your healthcare team. So the answer is yes. That portal's coming very soon. You can go to my website and actually get on the waiting list so that you're gonna be told when it launches.

Zane Myers (32:57)
Well, let's finish

this plug and give your website ⁓ URL.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (33:01)
world. Yes, either go to Wallace.

Yeah, Wallace for wellness.com Wallace spelt like my name W a l l i s for wellness.com or you can go to become the CEO of your health.com. They'll take you to the same place there you can get access to to the waiting list for the portal there you can get the blog that's full of all kinds of free education from all these ambassadors. You can also get my podcast and TV show

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel, which is full of education. And one thing I'm very proud of, and it's the first of its kind that I'm aware of, once again, my parents taught me, you don't complain about something unless you're willing to do something about it. And so when you see a gap, do something. Well, I know that if you're looking for a massage therapist, you can go to the directory here in Canada for the Ontario Massage Therapist Association, and you'll find regulated massage therapists like me.

But here's what I noticed Zane, is that just like healthcare, everything's siloed. And it's left up to us, the patient, to go like a ping pong ball trying to find your integrative health team. Because there's no way to search, but now there is. Somebody smarter than me, I took the idea to a coder, and there is now a FAM, Preventative Health Awareness Movement directory, which we are going to continue to build across North America.

vetted healthcare professionals, because my goal is to make this a go-to resource for family health teams. Your family doctor wants to make a good referral for you to a nutritionist or to a massage therapist or to a counselor, but they don't have a lot of time and that's not their training and they don't have the resources. And there hasn't been one place to bring everybody together. Well, the FAM directory, not only can you search by different practitioner, but here's the differential factor, which I'm so excited about.

is that you can put in your condition, diabetes for example, and any practitioner that works with people with diabetes will pop up. And eventually as we get thousands of people in this, there'll be different regions so that you can find in your community somebody that can help you. And you can then get into the driver's seat and create your own integrative health team, recognizing that you're the most important member of that team. So that's another part of my business strategy.

Zane Myers (35:25)
So tell me about

how do you vet ⁓ the people that come into those?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (35:29)
That's great question.

It's a very great question. I'm not just interested. So to build an infrastructure like this costs a lot of money. And currently I'm going to be completely transparent here. Currently practitioners that are in there are paying anything because I wanted to get it up off the ground. I have funded it, but that's not reasonable ongoing because to build a database like this, maintain a database like this. And when you go there, you get it like, for example, if you were in the directory, you're going to get a whole page.

with your information, your socials, your website, all of the things. So it's almost like a mini ⁓ profile in this greater database. It's time, money, and energy, right? Costs involved. So eventually there will be a small fee. So A, I'm gonna vet, not just anybody that has money to put into it, but I've got, I'm working on getting a whole board of healthcare professionals to really vet, and currently I've been doing it. I dive deep.

Zane Myers (36:04)
Mm-hmm.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (36:26)
Google their name, look at their credentials, cross-reference to make sure they say who they are and what they are, check to see if there's any complaints or disciplinary actions behind them. And here's why. Not because I'm trying to be mean or elitist, but because I believe that if I'm leading something, it's a reflection on all of us. When you have a better together philosophy of care in life and in business, I'm a reflection on you and you're a reflection on me. So I'm very cautious.

with who I collaborate with, who I work alongside, and who I show, you know, so I feel as the leader, I gotta be really cautious because if we let someone into this movement that has ulterior motives, because it's education first, that's key. I understand, you know, and as, you know, as entrepreneur, this is the holistic entrepreneur, I'm gonna say this candidly, I don't sell anything, I educate and empower, and the sales come as a result.

That comes with time, building credibility, building trust, the sale will come. So you're not gonna see me selling stuff. You're gonna see me sharing, educating, empowering. And once you build credibility and that's earned, just like the earned respect from the physicians, so they refer to me, it's earned. It's not something that should be expected.

Zane Myers (37:34)
Mm-hmm.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (37:51)
And same in this directory, it should be earned. So I do a lot of the diving, but I'm not gonna be able to do it myself as this. So right now there's a form that people fill out, then I dive in a little bit more. We're gonna have that automated. There's gonna be some checks and balances in the background and this is where AI is gonna come in handy, because it can scan the internet and find things. But eventually that's where we'll get. But that all takes time and money. But this is what entrepreneurs do. You always have to see the success path forward.

way down the road. That doesn't mean I'm there yet. But if I don't know where I'm it's important.

Zane Myers (38:23)
It sounds like you

⁓ retired but you didn't stop working. You're not really retired, you sold your business and you went on to do new challenge.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (38:30)
WHA-

I kept Wallace for Wellness the name because I wasn't selling anything. I needed more time and bandwidth to run a clinic of the size that I had with all the practitioners, because it wasn't just me. And I was still treating and running the business. And it's a lot. So I'd done it for 30 years. And I'd done a lot of growth and learning, learning how to business acumen. My skills from when I started, I had no business saying opening a clinic.

33 years ago, I had no clue how to open a business, how to run a practice. I had no idea. Had I learned over the course? Have I taken courses? I failed forward and often? Have I learned over the years? Yes. But I couldn't continue to run a business like that and do the things that I wanted to do like I just spoke about. The one to many, the legacy work.

Zane Myers (39:28)
I want to go

in reverse for just a minute because I want to find out. So when you're building your clinic, because a lot of people are ⁓ that that ⁓ we talked to on this show, they're they're trying to build a their business and they stay as sole practitioners. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's that's great. But ⁓ the ones that I really see that are more successful ⁓ invite in other people to their practice.

so that they are going across addressing more needs from a wider group of people. So how did you get, I'm getting to my question, so how did you get, so how many different practitioners first, how many different practitioners did you have at your clinic when you sold it?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (40:18)
So at one time or over the course of 30 years, because they're really... Okay. So we, I think at the peak I had over 10 massage therapists, a chiropractor, two naturopaths, a team of midwives, a nutritionist, a counselor, a couple of counselors actually, like mental health counseling, an osteopath and a reflexologist.

Zane Myers (40:21)
No, just at one time.

So there's more questions to this. I'm going to kind of dig in here a little bit, even if we go over a little bit, because I want to know. So when you had all those people, how many of them were on-site versus off-site?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (41:04)
⁓ So I owned the building that my clinic was in and there's only so much square footage, right? ⁓ However, we were smart about the way we utilize the space that we had in terms of who was working when and what days and split the hours. So maybe there was a morning shift, there was an afternoon shift and we utilize the space well. And some therapists or the chiropractor had a room that he was always there, but maybe the counselor

Zane Myers (41:09)
Yep. Right.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (41:33)
was in three times a week. And the massage therapist, you know, there's only so many hours in a day, it's physically demanding. So we were, I was very strategic about.

looking at my footprint of my business physically, figuring out how to properly manage the time and the space efficiently for the best return, understanding what each, you know, the square footage and what, so really what each square foot was worth and what therefore, how, how'd you have to fill that room in order to be.

Zane Myers (42:03)
Right.

So then

that's my next question is, you know, we had all these different practitioners. So some people will take the tactic of, you know, some people are actually employees and some people are subcontractors and some people I'm going to rent space to and some people we're going to split their fees with. And so how did you manage all of that? Because there's so many different ways to do that.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (42:29)
You're absolutely right. So ⁓ I did it differently, ⁓ meaning most of the practitioners were subcontractors. However, under the umbrella of Wallace for Wellness, which became a really good marketing machine, a very good credible credibility to be under there. opportunity, opportunity. I really tried to foster an opportunity to learn and grow from one another. Because when you have multiple practitioners working in a facility,

Zane Myers (42:46)
Yes.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (42:56)
You learn from one another, you inter-refer back and forth. Patient outcomes get better because we're collaborating. We're learning from one another. Then word spreads because you're getting outcomes. ⁓ So some were, most were subcontractors. had one, an office manager who was my employee, which was ⁓ of course necessary.

But then I also had some practitioners that rented space. So they paid regardless of when they were there. So it was a bit of a hybrid, but I always knew what ⁓ the space was worth, how it needed to run in order to be successful, but also to give opportunity for all practitioners to have some flexibility because by the letter of the law, as a contractor, you cannot just tell them the way they need to work. There's certain criteria.

that sets you apart an employee from the subcontractor and many people don't understand that difference and they get themselves into trouble, both the business owner, the clinic owner and the practitioner. I had to do a lot of that learning, right?

Zane Myers (44:00)
How did you manage all the different? Well, so if they're subcontractors, you kind of have to manage them, but then you kind of can't manage them. So how did you manage all the personalities?

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (44:12)
So I had contract, personalities. Well, that's just business, right? I mean, that was one of the biggest challenges actually, ⁓ as you have, it's open communication, it's getting uncomfortable and having to have hard conversations. It's transparency, it's integrity, ⁓ it's leading by example. But was that one of the hardest parts? I mean, I do a lot of business mentorship coaching and I'm proud. I get more excited now. Like I don't have to run my clinic anymore, but I so excited when I see a practitioner.

that's now doubled her revenue in two years since I've been her coach and she'll candidly tell you that. And I'm like, it's like, it's my, one of my kids. I'm like, this is awesome. I don't have to do it, but I can help show ⁓ you how I did it. And what you don't have to make the same mistakes I did because I've learned and I'm going to share them with you. mean, my gosh, Zane, if I could go back and take my own lessons and rewind the clock, but that's not life. And that's not business. And I could beat myself up and it's frustrating because

You know, I could have had probably bigger success sooner, but I wouldn't have learned so much.

Zane Myers (45:17)
Yeah,

I think that that is, you can make some shortcuts, but sometimes you just gotta get socked in the nose to know what it feels like so that you know how to react when.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (45:29)
Totally, biggest lessons, right? Those are the biggest lessons. And yeah, so I think just managing the people was probably one of the biggest, but I also love that. That's one of the things I miss. I don't miss managing the people. I miss working in one space with a lot of people that are like-minded, that I loved. ⁓ But I couldn't do that and lead a bigger purpose. And I really felt I had, who was I to lead a bigger vision like Sam? ⁓

Zane Myers (45:54)
Yeah.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (45:59)
without doing the work first. Like I had to go those 30 years and learn a lot and build credibility to feel like I had the skills so that I could now lead a nation. Well actually it's gone into the U.S. We have four U.S. Fambassadors that have come to me.

Zane Myers (46:16)
That's fantastic.

Congratulations. That's really great.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (46:19)
It is great. It is great.

Zane Myers (46:22)
So when you...

⁓ When you were out or when you're starting to build that team, how did you go about finding those people? originally it was just you as an independent. ⁓ And then did you have the building at that point? And then you...

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (46:41)
When I first, so it's a really cool story how it first started. when I, so in Canada, massage therapy is different. We have to write a government board exam in order to practice in the province of Ontario. And it's not an easy, it's not an easy exam. I was a government examiner for many years. Here's what I knew. I knew that I had to get out of the gate and down the road before anybody else. And 33 years ago, massage therapy wasn't what it is today. It wasn't in the consciousness.

of people the way it was. But what I did, I had mentored with someone else that was already practicing before I even wrote my government exam. And I literally leased a space in a medical building before I wrote my government exam. People thought I was nuts because they're like, what if you don't pass? And I was thinking that's not an option. And so I graduate, I start my clinic in this medical building.

Zane Myers (47:31)
Hahaha

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (47:40)
Well, with one and I called it at the time Wallace and Associates and I'll tell you why. Because I strategically picked a name that sounded professional and like a law firm. I wasn't going to have hands in my logo. I wasn't going to have some weird, like I wanted people to think. Good afternoon, Wallace and Associates. It sounded professional. It was authoritative and I wanted people to take me seriously and people thought I was law office. I'm like, perfect.

Now, did it morph eventually into Wallace for Wellness? Yes, but it was after I'd earned the respect and got some outcomes and had the credibility and then I changed my name. But I also called it Wallace and Associates and I had so many people say, well, why are you doing that? There's only one of you. Because I had vision. It's not only going to be me, eventually I'll have associates. Well, within six weeks I had one massage therapist. Within six months I had two. And then organically,

as demand and as necessary learning. So not only do we need massage therapists, but geez, I need to refer over here to a nutritionist. So why don't I try to get a nutritionist in my building? And then, geez, know, a chiropractor would be really helpful. I had a physio that worked with us for years. And to your point earlier, some of them also, I had some that also worked off site because we also did corporate wellness programs. We did in-home care for some.

So it was by accident, but it was by learning and recognizing, ⁓ we've got a gap to fill here. Okay, let's bring in a midwife. we've got a gap to fill here. We're bringing in a chiro. we've got a gap to fill here. The mind-body connection, we're bringing in a counselor. Because how many times people are on my table, the mind-body connection, and I was referring to counseling, because I've got to stay in my lane. I'm not going to pretend I'm somebody I'm not. I can handle first aid.

emotional first aid when somebody's on my table, because I'm trained to do that, but I'm not trained to counsel them in mental health counseling. That's for a psychologist or a counselor to do. So I'd be referring and they refer back to me. So then eventually I had a counselor work in my clinic so that I could refer across the hall. And so over the course of 30 years, I got to tell you, I'm so proud, like over 75 massage therapists built their careers and launched and

went on to open some of them to their own businesses. Midwives and family docs had a breastfeeding clinic, a family doctor had a breastfeeding clinic in my office. It was a really cool experience and I learned like a sponge. I was mentioning I did a talk to a bunch of massage therapists yesterday and I talked about community and collaboration and how to me it's essential. And I showed a picture of a sponge and I explained how when you continue to add water to a sponge,

It swells, doesn't it? It gets bigger. And then you get to squeeze it. Well, that's kind of how I envisioned how all the learning I was doing within my clinic room or clinic space, because I was learning from the lens of the chiropractor, learning from the lens of the osteopath, learning from the lens of the physio, learning from the lens of another massage therapist. And although it wasn't fully my training,

I was bringing that to squeeze that sponge, that knowledge into my treatments. That was a differentiating factor for me because there's thousands of massage therapists.

Zane Myers (51:12)
So it sounds

like you you facilitated it happening, you, ⁓ it just, it organically happened as a result of your attitude almost, that you were open to it and that ⁓ maybe some practitioners are close to it and it just won't ever happen because their attitude to it is they want control, they want...

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (51:43)
And they're worried about competition. I mean, my goodness, there's place for all of us. I'm breaking down silos in conventional medicine. Now I'm proud to say there's a new medical school where my clinic operated for 30 years that's opening. And I didn't know that I'd ever see this in my career, Zane. And I am so proud and beyond excited because the future of medicine is going to be different because of it. This new medical school has an integrative health clinic attached to it. Why? Because the future doctors are going to not only

Zane Myers (51:45)
Mm-hmm, competition, yep.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (52:12)
learn about preventative and integrative health, but they're going to experience it so that when they graduate and they take the Hippocratic Oath and become our future doctors, they're going to have a much broader expanse of knowledge instead of just a pill for an ill, pharmacology first, and there's nothing wrong with pharmacology, but it's, we literally have a sick care system, a symptom system, not a healthcare system. And they can't be everything to everyone.

But I am so proud because I'm one of only two allied healthcare professionals that are on the curriculum advisory board for this new medical school. I earned a seat at that table. I am immensely proud of that. But what I'm excited about is to welcome everybody on this, this is what FAM is about, on this movement forward to change the legacy of healthcare in our countries, because there's never been a more important time in our history.

than for people to feel, take some ownership for their health, to change the way they think about wellbeing. Instead of waiting till we're broken, this pill for an ill, sick care, but rather looking at prevention and proaction and empowerment. We're going to have a better healthy health span, not just a lifespan, because I'll tell you, in North America, people are living longer, but they're not living well. And the last 10 years.

Zane Myers (53:31)
I

do see that. I do see that. I agree with that. I think we need to wind it up right here. I really like the ending there. You're talking about some great topics. I think we had a great, ⁓ you're a great guest. Thanks. So I'm going to hit the stop button and then.

Margaret Wallis-Duffy R.M.T. (53:44)
Thank you.