SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everyone. Welcome to this episode of Nine to Five Wellness Podcast. Today I have a wonderful guest with me. And without further ado, I’m going to introduce her. And then we are going to dive into her foundation. Because I think you are going to benefit from this conversation so much that you’ll be like, oh, I’m so glad that I tuned in and listened to this podcast. Today, joining us on this podcast episode is our guest, Lisa Dowherty. She is a pioneer in medical fitness industry and the founder and CEO of the MedFit Education Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving lives by advancing education at the intersection of healthcare, fitness, and wellness. For more than 25 years, Lisa has been driven by a simple but powerful belief that exercise can transform lives. But only when educated professionals deliver it safely and appropriately. And I couldn’t agree more, Lisa, that gap became her life’s work. Under Lisa’s leadership, the foundation has developed internationally recognized educational initiatives, including the MedFit Classroom, MedFit TV, the MedFit Global Conference, mentorship programs, and specialty certificate courses that have educated thousands of professionals around the world. Today, Lisa continues to educate her, mentor her, write, and speak while also working directly with clients through the MedFit at Gratitude Ranch in Morita, California. I’m sorry if I mispronounced the town’s name. Gratitude Ranch represents the next evolution of her vision, a place where education, movement, nature, and human connection came together to inspire healing and lifelong wellness. So welcome to the podcast, Lisa. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 2:17

I’m doing great, and thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you so much for making time for us today. So we’re gonna dive right into it for listeners who haven’t come across it yet. Give us like a quick 360-degree overview of what Medfit Education Foundation is and what gap you were trying to fill when you first started it.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I founded not for profit in 2017. And uh to your point, I found a lack of education in the fitness industry to work with those with chronic disease, medical conditions, disabilities. And our industry has always focused on the generally healthy. Uh, and we’re still taught to work with generally healthy people. But who really needs us the most are those with all those challenges that I just mentioned. And so I saw that there was a lack of education, and I started the not-for-profit, and we started with weekly webinars, and they were free. Uh, and we did that for a few years, and then we started live conferences. We did eight medical fitness conferences over a two-year period, and they were held at universities, and that’s where you and I met in New Jersey, where I think it was in 2018. And what was really great about these events is that they were multidisciplinary. So, meaning that most industries, you know, chiropractors go to their conferences, doctors go to theirs, trainers go to theirs. That there wasn’t a conference that everybody could sit at a round table and learn about like how do we work with someone with cancer? You know, how do we work with someone with diabetes? And so everybody who attended these were like, wow, this is so great. I get to sit with a nutrition, chiropractor, massage therapist and a trainer. I’ve never done that before. Yes. So uh that took it, that takes us up to 2020 and the pandemic hit, and we were all stuck at home. And I decided that I’m gonna pivot to online education. And because everybody was stuck at home, it was very easy to reach out to educators um and say, you know, how do you feel about authoring a diabetes and fitness course or arthritis fitness course? And they all thought it was a great idea because this education didn’t exist for the fitness professional. They were stuck at home. So it was the perfect storm. So that was a gift of the pandemic, at least for this area, is that we created 23 online medical fitness specialist certificate programs in like three years. And anybody could take them, even though the title says fitness in there. You know, my mom can take the arthritis fitness specialist. Now she can’t become one because she doesn’t have a background in fitness training, but she’d learn everything about how to stay fit with arthritis. And so that’s where the courses came into being. And then last year we did our first virtual conference. Um, we haven’t done any conferences since 2020, so it’s been was five years. And I thought it’s time. Let’s make it global because my foundation is the world’s largest provider of online medical fitness education right now. So let’s invite you. So we had like 13 different countries attend last year, and I don’t know how many are attending this year, but it’s a global conference. So we’re airing it, I think, in four different time zones. So if you miss one, it’s rolling to a different time zone. So that’s information on my foundation.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

That’s wonderful. And I’m so glad you said that even if our listeners aren’t in the medical fitness field directly, they can benefit from these sessions. So I want to talk to you about the conference, and we are gonna pull up the whole agenda soon. But before I do that, another question for you. Conferences take a ton of energy to pull off. Like, it takes a ton of energy to like put everything together. So, I mean, there’s usually like a real story behind why someone decides that this needs to exist. And you just touched upon it a little bit. What sparked the idea for this MedFit Education Conference, which is global and now it’s gonna be aired in four or five different time zones? Tell us a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Well, uh, to be honest, and I’ll be brief. Um, I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer a couple of summers ago. And I was still going through my, I’ll just call it a diagnosis last uh spring. And I didn’t know where it was headed, but I thought, you know what, this is such an important thing, and I want to leave a legacy behind if something should happen to me. And so I reached out to the company, Josh Levy, whose platform that I’m using, and I said, you know what? I want something positive to look forward to. I want something positive happening. You know what? Let’s do a virtual conference. I wasn’t up for an in-person event, yeah, but I still wanted to do something positive. So, because again, we’re a global leader, I said, you know what, let’s make it a global conference. And let’s, you know, in all English-speaking countries at this time until we get translation. Um, and he he loved the idea. He lost his father to cancer. And so I said, you know, I don’t know how present I’ll be uh planning or what my emotions will be like. But if you could do most of the heavy lifting, let’s get this going. And we we knocked it out of the park. We got so many views, we got so many attendees, and he’s been in this business, this space, the virtual um conference space, I think for six years now. And he told me that we got more signups than any of his events ever, any company he ever hosted ever, more views than any of his events. I can’t believe that he was so transparent in saying that because he didn’t have to.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

This is great. So when it came to do it again this year, and I’m like, absolutely, that’s a no-brainer. You know, let’s do it. And we’ve already achieved more signups and we’re in a better place than we were last year. And we were ahead of all the conferences last year.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

So I’m really excited about it. That’s awesome. I’m super excited too. I am presenting at the conference, and that’s actually how we kind of reconnected. Yeah. But that being said, I’m super excited. Okay, let’s share the screen so that everybody can see what we are talking about.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

And while you’re sharing, I’ll say, and and they’ll see this if you pull up the page. We have 90 uh sessions in kinds of diverse topics. And I when we uh did this conference this year, we had 181 people apply to speak at it, which is our record for them. And even National Academy of Sports and Medicine was scratching your head, 181 applicants. And I said, Yeah, I had to cut them in half because we don’t we can’t do a four-month-long conference. Yeah, yeah. You made the cut, but oh yay, awesome, awesome. Because I had her read 181 bios, presenters, topics, and and pick just half of them, and it took to to do that. So there’s 90 left. So there, these are the cream of the cream, her cream of the cream.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Nice, nice, and that’s what I like about this conference and you, just like I was saying earlier, it takes a lot to put a conference virtual and or in person. They’re two different types of like, you know, mediums. Thanks for featuring all these professionals for and all these topics. So, Lisa, can you see the website on your end? I can.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

And okay, so we are on the home page here. And, you know, just scrolling down where it says whether you’re a personal trainer to a healthcare provider or just a fitness enthusiast, you know, this conference is um for you. And if you can’t attend live, which is fine, you can watch a session later in the day, later that week, or I think there’s a six-month access to it. So you just need to register and you can watch it at your leisure unless you want to engage one of the presenters. So even though it’s virtual, we are asking uh presenters, can they um, you know, be at their session live, at least in one of the time zones. So that if people want to ask questions, they can. And if they’re not able, or if it’s a you know, it’s airing in New Zealand or something, then we would collect questions and make sure the presenter got your questions. So whether you’re live or delayed, all your questions will be answered from any session that you attend. So I want to mention that.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

I’m glad you did. And it says that right here on the header, can’t attend live. Your registration includes six month access. So it’s a steal. It’s this is like a this is the best conference deal I’ve ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

We could we could do it because we’re, you know, not for profit. I I’ve never, and as you know, you know my background, I’ve never done this project for money. I did it because it someone needed to step up and do this project. Yeah. So so I did, and everybody loved that I stood up and did it. And that’s why I have so many people that want to be a part, because it this needs to happen. You know, there’s so much information out there. If you click on the agenda, okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Let’s take a look at the agenda right here. Yeah. And here we are. So this is the first day. It’s from September 24th through September 27th. Yes. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Where there’s a toggle where it says display time, Pacific Mountains, Central, Eastern.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yes, it does say display time, which I didn’t notice before. I’m so glad you’re mentioning it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So you’d want to look and see what when they’re going to air in your zone. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

And if you so if it’s 9 a.m. Eastern, which is my zone, but if I wanted to check your time zone, so that’s 6 a.m. Okay, just change it to the time zone right here. That’s a wonderful feature.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yes, it is, because I we’re catering to so many people, at least in the United States, we’re doing the time zone. So people in other countries, they could see what’s closest to them, or of course. But I want to point out Colin Milner. I mean, he um, the CEO of the Council on Active Aging, and he has spoken at the World Health Organization, he has spoken at uh presidential conferences, national events. And, you know, he’s a colleague of mine, he’s very fond of me. He knows my whole story, why I started this. And he normally charges like five to ten thousand dollars to speak, and you know, he’s donating his time for um at this conference. So I mean, some of these speakers are just really phenomenal and that people wouldn’t normally get access to for the prices that we’re offering. Um I want to, you know, point that out as well. But if you scroll down, even you know, just looking a couple down, there’s something. I mean, that’s for any gal. Exactly. Gal 50 plus or whatever. So trainer, it’s for you know, anybody and are using just you know, using movement and mindfulness to support sobriety, you know, during the there was an increase in drugs and alcohol because we were all stuck at home. Absolutely, you know, optimizing bone health in women, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yes, I’m looking at this one, and you know, these two are speaking so much to me, the menopausal care, and then this one.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Um, movement breaks. So we have every day doing a 30-minute movement break, and there’s something you could do with your computer, so to have a chair-based workout, you to be in a gym to do the workout. Oh, yeah, I see this final chair based on Alexa. She’s just uh famous for her chair-based workouts. She’s spoken at just every fitness conference there is, so um, it’s really fun to have her be part of ours. So she’ll do a chair workout. You know, wonderful, yeah, all kinds of fun things in uh over many days.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

I’m just gonna keep on scrolling so that we can take a look.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Even when there’s one on meditation, pregnancy, and postpartum, you know. Female health span. That I love this. Enhancing your aging brain. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Exactly. I know a lot of people are like always attending like webinars and stuff, which is after the live conference session, which is what it is gonna be, just to understand, like you know, longevity, health span, that’s the buzz right now. Everyone wants to live longer, which is a great goal. I’m so glad that we’re actually talking about it and we have made it more commonplace for everybody to talk about. But this is it. You know what? You can just register here and get access to so many different webinars that you can watch on your own time. 90 of them. Yeah, so I love this kickboxing for longevity from diagnosis to dynamic programming. This is so good.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Blood sugar, blueprint, having a shoulder injury, you know, what Polanese does, getting knee replacement, you know, managing stress, yoga. Yes, yes. It’s so many good sessions, so seriously, you know, and some of them are um they’re they’re all good. So you I guess you, you know, unless you’re gonna sit at your computer, watch the ones you want, watch them later. You can go back and watch them again. Maybe you watch it and you’re like, Well, I really want my mom to see this one, so I’m gonna replay it again and watch it with my mom, if it would help her. So watch more than once because you’re only for six months.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Absolutely. I love that. Oh, there’s my session, the AI cure. Yep. Um, and then from muscles to mind, and we have such a huge library, yes, all these sessions.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

I am so glad. I’m gonna point out on Sunday uh the kids are living longer, living stronger. Let me just pull up Nick DeNubili. Uh he’s a friend. This one, okay. This one with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He served on the presidential physical fitness committee for many decades. He’s retired now, and he’s been on PBS doing the framework series. And he’s a colleague of mine, he’s very fond of me. He’s someone else that charges a lot of money to speak. And again, he’s donating his time Sunday morning to speak. And I think he just did this one at the White House for the 4th of July thing. He was just there. It’s the same presentation that he did. So, I mean, the summaries are really great. I want to make sure the the listeners know that.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yes, I’m so glad that you’re highlighting the keynote speakers here. I have to say, though, as I’m looking at all these speakers, and I’ve been in contact with some of them in some way or form at different conferences and whatnot, and or have worked with them at a certain session or at a certain conference. And I have to say, all of them are so experienced and accomplished. Very pretty. That’s like hands down. Everybody, Debbie Bellinger, Teresa. I’ve worked with her, I’ve worked with Christine. They’re all wonderful. Everybody over here.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Like uh Carla, yeah, Carper V. Girolamo. She works with CrossFit and she’s like their chief medical officer. And you know, so I know her personally, so she’s speaking. So there’s a lot of, I mean, all these people’s bios are on the website, and they’re really interesting people as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

I was just gonna mention, I’m just gonna exit out for a second here so we can and we can share it again because I do want to show people how to sign up. But let me stop sharing for a sec. I was just gonna say you were mentioning, oh, you got 180 applications, although it must be a lot of work, but it also was probably fun to go through the for sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

It was because I had to make sure the person was qualified to speak on the topic. So I wouldn’t have someone who has a degree in exercise science speak on nutrition, for example. So I had to, I feel very responsible in this space. And I want to make sure that all education delivered in this space reflects the high standards that I have for this foundation. And so yeah, it was fun. And some of these people, I’m like, okay, will you just do one of our regular webinars? Because we still do webinars every other week. And they maybe didn’t make the cut for the conference, but I I like their topic because I can only choose 90. So I think next year it may even be bigger. I was just gonna say, maybe they can present next year. Oh, I may have to do maybe a spring conference and a fall. Yes, I’m in, I’m in. Tell me 200 other people or absolutely, that would be wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

This is such a good cause, and I think it’s a great way to actually just bridge the gap between medicine and fitness and make this more commonplace, accessible for everyone who wants to learn like where does fitness belong within the medical spectrum. Okay, so how can people register? Let me just share the screen again because we have a uh coupon code for our listeners and viewers. So if you go on to the homepage, this is the way to visit this website. And I’m gonna include the link in the show notes in case, you know, because when we’re talking or if you’re listening on your commute, you might forget. Okay. So the webpage is uh www.fbasucceed.com slash medfit. That’s the code uh the web webpage URL URL. Okay. Now, as soon as you hit that, you’ll see on the header of the website, it says register now. So all you have to do is click there. And Lisa, what’s the special code for our listeners today?

SPEAKER_00 21:16

It is, let’s see, they just created one this morning, my gal Ivy did, and it’s Lisa VIP. L I S Lisa V I P. That’s easy to remember. All in capital letters. And then if there’s any fitness professionals listening, I’m offering a mentorship hour at 50% off. Uh if they wanted to do that. Oh, yeah, I just see this over here. Oh, I mentor trainers all over the world. Um, I just did someone in New Zealand, as a matter of fact, um, from Los Angeles to New Zealand. And I’ve been in this space for 28 years, and I’ve had a really great uh success and a great experience. And I have a good business background, so if I can help any. Anybody with their business, I’m I got a lot of wisdom to share.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

And I would second that just so everybody understands seriously. I met Lisa in 2018 at Rowan University for one of the MedFit tours. And yeah, she has only grown since then, like the foundation and the network. That being said, she has loads of experience that you can learn from. And just let’s take a look over here so that if, and I know a lot of fitness instructors and or fitness professionals also listen to my podcast who are in my network. So if they are registering, there they can also earn CEU. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Wow. Yeah, for ACE, NASM, and after we got approved. They may be working on other approvals. I don’t know, but I those are the main ones. It seems like most trainers are whatever certified. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

If you’re not listed on there, you just petition. Most agencies are $25 for a petition fee. And they never approve it. They’re not going to argue with you. I’ve taken lots of education over the years that I’m certified through ACE that wasn’t in their roster. I send in $25 and I got credit for it.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

That’s how it works. And so over here you will see there is a coupon code, and you can put Lisa V-I-P. You will spell it as L-I-S-A-V-I-P, and it’s all capital letters, and then apply the code, and it would discount the registration fee to $99. And yeah, I mean, why wouldn’t you use this opportunity to be able to watch and listen to 90 plus experts, 90 plus sessions? Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

What are you waiting for? Sign up.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Exactly, exactly. And I can’t wait to be on the live session with my attendees. I’m presenting on Saturday and Sunday. So I’d love to see you guys there. But yeah, this is how you register. So great, Lisa. This is so awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. Because you know what? I wanted to make sure that the founder and the person whose dream it was and is, and who’s working behind the scenes, gets the highlight and gets to talk about it. I’m so happy that you joined us and talked about the conference. I’m super excited about it. And honestly, about all the initiatives you have taken over, like over the years, and this one especially, I think it’s such a great initiative. Anyone can learn from it. Anyone, just like you said, oh, your mom can learn. I mean, I’m gonna send it to my sister to see to register and learn from it because there’s prenatal, postnatal care, and she just had a baby. And I was like, oh, that would be great. That would be great for her. She works from home, like remotely. So she’s always looking for like chair workouts and stuff. Right. So this would be perfect for anyone. You don’t have to be a fitness professional to attend.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Oh, no. Yeah. And we may even do a live event one day at Gratitude Ranch. We’re gonna send an email out about a month afterwards to see who would be interested in a live event in 2027. So stay tuned. Oh that’s great. That’s something that should happen.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Yes, let’s make it happen, Lisa. Let’s make it happen. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else our listeners should know? Any parting words?

SPEAKER_00 25:45

You know what? Uh keeping fit and strong, I think keeps you younger. A lot of people, when I meet them, they think I’m in my 40s. And when I tell them I’m 62, they’re like, really? And it’s, you know, because I exercise and I, you know, eat as well as possible, and you know, a stress and that. And so it keeps you youthful and makes you’re talking about longevity. You know, it’s not just your lifespan, it’s your health span. And you could spend the last 15 years, which I think that’s what uh surveys say that most Americans do, um, not able to take care of themselves the way they would like to. Yes, you don’t want to be that person. So it’s about your health span. And here you got 90 sessions to learn more to improve your health span.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yes, exactly. My session on metabolic health, it’s a little bit um evidence-based and scientific, but the the reason why it’s so important, metabolic health, which you just kind of referred to, is important is because nobody wants to be dependent on others. They everybody wants to be functioning while they are here, right? And I see so many patients, nobody has ever said to me, okay, you know what? I want to be dependent on others, however, the lifestyles we adopt, and then a lot of like social conditioning and what and whatnot, um, through that, we are always like slowing down as we’re getting older. And that’s the thing, like you you need to stay more active and you need to take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Well, you know, we’re all I mean, we know this, we’re all living longer than we used to. So if you really want to prepare for your 70s, which like two decades ago, that wasn’t even something people were retiring, I think, at 55 in the 1970s, and you know, so forth. But now we’re living to be 70 or 80. And yeah, forget where I read this, but they say if we’re all born 100%, between 70 and 75, we decline 50%. And that’s cognition, power, processing, strength. And so what you do now, while I bring this up, sets you up for your 60s and your 70s so that you don’t, you know, have such a big decline at that age gap there.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Yeah, yeah. Lisa, thank you so much for joining us on 925 wellness. This was a fantastic conversation. Thank you. And to our listeners, thanks for tuning in. And for our viewers, wherever it can go out in video format, it will like Spotify, YouTube, Apple Video. Thanks for tuning in. And we’ll catch you next time. Don’t forget to sign up for MedFit Education Foundation conference. And you have the code Lisa VIP to register and get a hefty discount. So hopefully I’ll see you at the conference. Bye for now. Bye for now.

 

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