Dr Carla Stanton

Full transcript: Dr Carla Stanton on London Real

0:00 Okay, I am here with Carla Stanton, recent London Real Business Accelerator graduate. Welcome. Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here. You have the most unique story, I think, and I remember watching your hero’s journey when I was at home, and I was like, I told Mariana, I’m like, you got to watch this. But she couldn’t watch it ’cause she’s not in the thing. But I was like, this woman has a message that really resonates a lot. It really resonated with me and everybody on the course. Can you tell us a little bit about you?

0:22 Yeah, of course. So I’m a UK-based doctor, and through this process I’ve created a completely holistic treatment model for eczema, to treat your eczema long term, and with the ultimate goal to get off all your medications. But this process was very nonlinear for me, and I think when you ask most people why they became a doctor, they’ll tell you it’s because they wanted to heal the sick or help people.

0:54 And you know, I have to confess that that really wasn’t the case for me, Brian. It was, I had always lived with certain conditions. You know, from the age of three months I’d lived with eczema, and went on to develop conditions such as asthma and chronic fatigue. And as you know, some of your audience might recognise, there’s no other time when you’ll feel more uncertain than when your health is called into question.

1:18 So the reason why I really became a doctor was because I wanted to fulfil my fundamental need for certainty, because I felt a lot of uncertainty in my life, and I figured, what better way than to acquire these skills to make intelligent choices for myself and ultimately my family, and keep them well. So yeah, I went to medical school and I worked hard and I learned a lot.

1:41 And come 2005, when I qualified, I was released to implement this newfound knowledge. And you know, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve consulted over 70,000 patients in the last 10, 11 years nearly now, and I’ve witnessed medicine at its absolute finest, you know, how it really serves, particularly in the acute or urgent setting. But I’ve also experienced and witnessed a huge amount of disconnect and pain and frustration.

2:13 And quite honestly, I began to feel more and more disconnected in this profession that I came into, and as a result my condition started to suffer, and certainly it got a lot worse. And it was at that point that I really got my first call to action, which was when my dear sister, in her early 30s with two young children, started to develop joint pain, swelling and stiffness, and was diagnosed with quite a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis.

2:45 And was quickly started on three different immunosuppressants and a cocktail of painkillers, and although she felt a little bit better, I could tell that she was clearly terrified about her future. She was incredibly uncertain and she didn’t know how she was going to look after her family, ultimately. And this for me was a real wake-up moment, because I honestly felt completely useless.

3:19 You know, despite being her sister and a doctor, I couldn’t really call on my tools to help her, and I knew medically speaking where this could be going, and I felt I couldn’t give her false hope, and I wanted to give her hope. And so, you know, I’m ashamed to say that I kind of withdrew from that situation. I didn’t really know how to handle it, and I started to look for certainty elsewhere in my environment at that time.

3:52 And that’s where I came across my first real sort of mentor really, which was Tony Robbins. And he does a day event all around the world called Unleash the Power Within, where you walk with 7,000-plus people across burning hot coals, and it’s kind of a metaphor for breaking out of your fears. And this seemed to me, quite honestly, a bit gimmicky. I thought, how does that work? I couldn’t work out medically how on Earth you could walk bare feet on burning hot coals and not burn yourself.

4:22 My mom did that with Tony when I was a kid. Oh really? I thought she was pretty crazy too. Yeah, but it’s just the most incredible experience. I mean, you do it the first night, and I walked out with all these people, you know, 7,000-plus people, all descending to these amazing loads of fire, fire lanes. And I had that moment of fear where I thought, wait a minute, this is going to burn, this is going to really hurt. I could leave now and no one’s going to know.

4:53 And I kind of took a step back and I looked at all these people walking down in unison, and I realised that I had to take a leap of faith with these people, you know, have respect for them, and that there had to be some truth in this. So I did it, and I didn’t burn, and I couldn’t explain it, and it blew my mind. And it started this whole cogwheel turning about how the power of our health beliefs, or power of our beliefs, can fundamentally affect our physiology and therefore our health, and what implications could these have.

5:29 So I started to research, and it was, you know, it was a tough time trying to sort of implement these changes. And I suppose perhaps, rather than taking the time for deep self-reflection that I was given the opportunity to do, I started to project it on people I love. So I started, immediately go to my sister and tell her how she could change her diet, how she could change her thought processes, how she could heal herself, and my relationship, and fix him.

5:52 And you know, these people, it fell on deaf ears, because they had not asked for my help. You know, and I realised that I was actually becoming more and more frustrated and getting sicker, and I realised that I needed to change things up. And it was at this point that I got my second call to action, where I too started to develop joint pain, swelling and stiffness, and was terrified that I too was developing this long-term chronic immunological disease.

6:27 So that’s when I really turned inward and realised, because whatever I was doing was not working. And I started to research even more, and I started to research the healing power of meditation and nutrition, and calling upon my medical skills, I was doing a dermatology qualification at the same time about skin, I could fashion something that I needed to completely treat myself of these conditions.

6:51 And you know, I’m so blessed to say that I now live completely free of all these medications, and I feel compelled that I want to give someone a space that they can do this too. And that was kind of part of my journey to start this London Real Business Accelerator course. So yeah, that’s kind of where I’m at now. Yeah, that’s a powerful story, like I said. Yeah, thank you.

7:14 Why join our accelerator to do this? Yeah, well, it was interesting. I mean, I knew I had all these ideas, and I actually came to one of your focus group evenings here, and I met you, and I stood up here. Absolutely. Yeah, so immediately felt safe amongst all these people, and shared my story, and you said to me, you need a product. And I thought to myself, oh, okay.

7:45 And I hadn’t really thought about a product, hadn’t really kind of confined it, ’cause I kind of, in my head and my doctor brain, I was like, a product equals pharmaceuticals, and I don’t want to get into that. But you started that cogwheel turning in me, and then I started watching more and more of your content, and came across Anita Moorjani, who talks about, a lady who suffered with stage four lymphoma, had an out-of-body experience where she experienced unconditional love for the first time.

8:08 And had realised that all her decisions to that point had been made through fear, and felt that this had manifested her condition. And quite honestly, that really deeply resonated with me personally. All the decisions I’ve been making that have been misguided have been through fear, and all these 70,000-plus patients I’ve seen who were suffering had been in this state too. And I realised that I needed to break out of my fears and start doing something about this, and I couldn’t ignore it.

8:41 And I knew that you had this course, and I just loved the ethos of your organisation. I knew that I could trust it, that you’re open, that you’re honest, that you’re top of your game. And I thought, you know what, I don’t have a lot of business acumen. I’ve kind of focused on the medicine, the medicine, the medicine. I’m going to trust in this team, in the process, and just run with it. And yeah, and here I am now.

9:04 Yeah. How did you find the course? Yeah, a roller coaster. Yeah, absolutely. There was real moments of elation and feeling like you’re breaking through, and then moments of sort of deep reflection inward and questioning, you know, because it’s the first time that I’ve really put myself out there. I’ve kind of always learned the method and then you’re teaching the method, but it was my method, and that was getting really vulnerable.

9:29 And it was just amazing to have these connections with these people who I’d never met in the flesh, and we were immediately on the same, you know, same page of let’s help each other, let’s grow. All your amazing content that you gave, and we just worked through it to develop our own businesses, which I’m so proud of everyone, you know, in this process, that we’ve really grown for these eight, nine weeks. So yeah, it was amazing.

9:53 I think it was week three where I was talking about finding your micro niche, and you ended up being, like, not a joke, but an example on the course, because you were, you know, you’ve talked about eczema, but then you were like, well, I want to do this holistic thing and this. And I was just like, no, you got to be the eczema lady, and that’s a beautiful micro niche.

10:18 And it was funny, on the course there was like 30 people and 10 of us were like, we’ve had eczema problems, and like, that’s statistically really high. And like, it resonated with me and Chris Albert, and you know, I’ve been on immunosuppressants and all that craziness. Many people, it was just, that’s the micro niche. So I ended up selling everybody for the next weeks your… Absolutely, and I hope you don’t mind me… No, no, I’m proud to be part of that.

10:41 Okay, yeah. And then from there, you know, you had ups and downs, like you said. I think you struggled with some of the tech, but then got through that struggle, I think. How were some of the later weeks on the course? Yeah, I found some of the tech challenging. I found putting my content out there challenging, quite honestly, certainly the Facebook Live challenge, because that was actually broadcasting it to my friends and family, not just this safe space that we created within, you know, the London Real Business Accelerator.

11:11 It was really getting vulnerable, and I was incredibly aware of my colleagues thinking that I was shunning off medicine and I was stepping completely into a holistic world. And you know, that wasn’t what I wanted them to think at all, and I was scared of their judgment, quite honestly, and thinking, she’s gone crazy, you know, what’s going on there? But the more I started to tell people about my story and connect with them, actually people really resonated with it, and they were happy for me to do what I wanted.

11:50 And it was actually really liberating. And it was really difficult for me to tell my family, and I was expecting, you know, them to just brush it off and say, what are you doing? But actually, when I told them my why, and that this would make me happy, they went for it and they believed in it. So yeah, I don’t think I would have done that at all if it hadn’t been for this process of giving me that faith in myself and that self-belief, which I have been struggling with for a long time throughout my life. So yeah, I’m truly thankful for that.

12:19 Are you completely out of the closet now? Does everybody know what you’re doing? It’s getting there, yeah. I mean, it depends where the people find you, right? So I’m getting my message out there. It’s an ongoing process in terms of getting over my fears, definitely. I guess that never ends in terms of growth. But I’m getting my content out there, I’m telling everyone, you know, my friends that I see. So yeah, and it feels right.

12:45 So yeah, because it is right. You have this incredible message, and anybody that’s just watched this are like, wow. And so, you know, like I said to you at dinner a week ago, you got to keep pushing yourself out there, because we all have this fearful baggage, and we’re like, ah, maybe people are going to say this and judge this and judge this. But like, the whole course, we’re pushing, pushing, pushing people to put content out there.

13:08 And everybody on the course said, I was expecting this reaction, expecting the hate, expecting… and it just didn’t happen, because most people are busy with their own lives. And if you have a real why, first of all, they’re just too busy really to worry about your life. That’s really the basic of it. And so, and again, if you’re doing something that’s congruent with you, it’s great anyways. And at the end of the day, you have to find your own people anyways. Absolutely.

13:25 So if it’s, you’re not selling to your friends and family, that’s what I try to tell everybody. And I made the same mistake, you know, four years ago with London Real. Set up my Facebook page, my friends and family wouldn’t even like the page, they wouldn’t even tick the button, and I had left my career for this new thing. And so I had to get over it and realise that I actually had to find the people that did care. And it was hard, but now I’m better because of it, and now I’m out there just doing what I want to do.

13:51 And so what I’ll be doing the next few months is keeping my eye on you, to make sure that you keep doing these Facebook Lives and keep pushing this content out there, because the world needs you. You have an incredible message that, you know, everybody needs to hear. So what are your plans for the next few months? Yeah, so it’s going to be creating a lot of my content and getting out there, getting a following. That’s what I really need to do. I need to improve my ability to market myself.

14:15 This is all completely new to me, but I feel now that you’ve given me the tools that I can go back to. We have this content that we can access beyond this course, we have access to each other, and whenever I… it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all this amazing information you give, but you know, by the process of the sequence in which you deliver it, as soon as I get lost, or I get overwhelmed, should we say, I just go back to my why.

14:41 I go back to that module zero and I start building, you know, stepping on the ladder each time, and I know if I get those solid foundations, then I can really create something that has huge value. So I really believe in that now, and I’m so excited about where it’s going to head. Yeah, you have all the potential. You know, you have a great message, you have great value to add to the world.

15:05 And like, you look at your classmates, like, they’ve done it. So it’s like, you look at your classmates, like Tika built the series, built the video series, he’s doing it. Fahim’s doing Halal Paleo, he’s selling eBooks. So like, you know, Stevie’s on lawyers are tomorrow, his autoresponder sequence is getting tons of email traffic, and it’s all working. So if they do it, I know you can do it.

15:31 By far, it’s just we got to get more of you out there, to figure out a product, to lose the guilt over selling. It’s okay to have a business, because without you having a business, you’re going to just be stumbling along and your message won’t get out there. But as soon as you can have a real business with products, the whole world will know about Carla Stanton, just the way they know about Anita Moorjani.

15:46 And they’re going to be like, wow, thank God she swallowed the pride, swallowed the fear, made it a business, so now we can all know about these things. Because I wish I knew about you years ago when I was struggling with my eczema, because I didn’t want to leave the house. I mean, I don’t have to tell you about how debilitating these things are, you know, and they ruin people’s lives, and there’s just so many better solutions. So yeah, I’m just encouraging you to do more of that. Yeah, I’m there.

16:12 Just final other things from the course. I know you mentioned the group and the Facebook group, and like, the people on the course. Like, for people that don’t understand, I mean, what was it like with the group and the live calls and interacting with them and seeing all the things they did? I mean, it’s really, it’s quite a, like you said, it’s a real safe space. It’s a private group on Facebook and everyone’s really ripping their guts out and putting them on display every week, right?

16:35 Yeah, yeah, it’s amazing, the instant trust that is created. I think because of the ethos of this, you know, team that you’ve created, people immediately trust in each other, and we’re all there to guide each other through. And that space is incredibly unique, and you know, I can’t think of another space where I’ve been able to do that, really. So it was just amazing to see everyone, and just, as you say, all the amazing things that people were creating.

16:59 And everyone in this course, we were all surprising each other, and it just pulls you all up together when you’re all part of a group, and just raising your standard and realising what’s possible. If they can do it, I can do it. And yeah, it’s amazing what we managed to create.

17:24 Last question: you know, to someone who’s watching that doesn’t know, maybe I’ll take the accelerator, maybe I won’t take it, maybe I’ll keep being a doctor at the NHS, maybe I’ll do this, what do you tell them? Do it. If you’re asking the question, you need to do it. And I think this is, as I say, a unique environment where you will be guided through with amazing content and the group to guide you to where you need to be.

17:47 You know, we always regret things. I certainly always regretted things that I haven’t done. And if you feel in your gut that you’re hungry for something, that there’s something that’s always in the back of your mind and there’s something else you’re looking for, this team will help you find and crystallise that vision. So I’m so grateful that you’ve managed to help me on this journey of mine.

18:04 I’m grateful to have you on the course. You know, like I said, from week one your hero’s journey resonated with me, you just did it again here, and like, you know, the studio is going to feel it now for a few months, because like, you have a serious message. And I was just, yeah, just really happy to have you on the course. You know, we’ve got such an incredible group of people, like, you know, and just serious people with serious professions that want to take it to the next level.

18:28 And so when I first saw it, I was like, you, you know, doctor, 70,000 patients, you know, Stevie, you know, lawyer, Wall Street traders, Chris, fun CEO of, you know, multi-million dollar corporation. It’s just like all these incredible people, along with movement people, along with scaffolders, along with all these people. It’s just an incredible group. It’s like the alumni of some, you know, business school, and I’m just excited to see everybody going forward.

18:51 And I want to see you a year from now, you know, back on this show for reals. And you know, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. And so the only thing holding you back is you. Yeah. And just remember that and just keep pushing forward. As Stevie Turner said when we had him here last week, you know, he said every time he came up with something that he wanted to avoid, he’s like, oh yeah, I forgot, I got to go head first into this.

19:14 Yeah, it’s just like, and that’s a great thing to realise as an entrepreneur. When you find something that scares you, that you want to avoid, you have to actually turn 180 and go straight into it, and then you’ll find that it actually wasn’t that big of a deal. And now that sets you aside from all the people that would have cowered against that challenge.

19:31 So I mean, how many other Carla Stantons are still working the job and still will never ever do this, because they got scared of, I don’t know, doing one vlog? And so now you pushed through that, and you have to do like a thousand of those battles, you know, to where finally you can be, I think, where you can change people’s lives. So keep doing it for the rest of us. I think it’s the most important thing. Again, honour to have you, Carla. Super excited. Don’t stop, and keep us posted on your journey. Yeah, I will. Okay. All right, give me a hug. Thanks.