From A Cancer Survivor to Wellness Guru: Joseph Fermin’s Inspiring Journey | Joseph Fermin | Ep. 15

Podcast Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

Welcome to a Healthy Point of View podcast. I'm your host, Sam Tahara, and today we have our special guest. This guy here has a wonderful story. He has life-changing story, he's been in the industry longer than what I have, which is a long time. We have Joseph and Ming. Joseph is with AAI Clinics, specializing in rejuvenation. Thanks for being here. This is fantastic, man. You and I have been going back and forth, communicating for years. And then recently we connected. Connected again. We were talking, it was like, you know what, let's do some content together.

Let's talk about our stories. Lets talk everything that's happening in the industry. So for all the viewers, we got a lot of doctors, a lots of consumers that listen to the podcast. Let's talk a little bit about how you got into the industry and who Joseph is. Well, basically, I started doing marketing and advertising for clinics down here in South Florida back in the early, in 2010 around there. The first clinic that I ever worked for was Total Health and Rejuvenation Center in Boca. the owner was Don Montano, one of the millionaires in boca right there, I really jump into the business, not really knowing anything,

Joseph's Entry Into Marketing and Music 1:35

just know how to build websites. From that day on, I went into different adventures. Joseph, so, you know, obviously you got into to the industry. You got a strong background in business and operations. And for those of you guys who don't know Joseph is Dominican, uno de los míos, right? And as Dominicans, we always got the hustle in us, so one of the things with AAI Clinics that I noticed for years is that you guys were always fantastic at SEO. I would say it, I'm like, man, am a marketer, and I am Dominican.

Am a hustler, but I can't figure this out. You cracked the code early on. It was a thing that I figured out early on that time. What were you doing? Like, how did you kind of figure that out? Because everything changes so much. You'll be surprised, brother. I first started learning about computers when I started starting learning music. Okay. I'm gonna tell you a little story that I haven't told nobody. But that's like what, coding? Computers or? No, making music. Making music, okay. That's what got me into the computer and to the marketing and advertising.

All right. At the age of 14, my stepdad would use to manage loquendo over there in the American public. So I used to travel with him. I use set up the equipment and so forth. Okay. Um, that how I started learning about electronics and computers and Arriving here in South Florida, I created my own company named HFR Entertainment in the music business. What year was that? That was in 96. In that time, South a racist place. It was different. Good old boy system. You know, police was tough. Yeah, I've heard stories about that, especially when I worked at the fire department.

I can tell you that for a fact, a lot of it was another state. He would try to drive around for life. So the lifestyle from Dominican Republic coming here was totally different, so I had to get used to that lifestyle. So the only thing that I know how to do was music. So that's what I put my whole entire energy into music, okay? That's when I discovered my cousin Edo that was working to the hormone business. He started working for Total Health and Rejuvenation Center. That was in 96 though? No, that was a few years later.

That's a fast word. Yeah. If it's 96, I don't even know if I had a computer back then yet. It was actually Fruit Loop that we used to do. There was Little Squares doing music back in the days. Pro Tools was even invented. You know, it was that or live music to record. Those were the only two ways to make music, back at the day. So... That part of the business wasn't really doing too much. Studio time, people was in pain. I had to follow people around, call them, hey, you owe me money. And I wanted to get out of that business.

That I didn't want to do nothing to business, I even did a movie, a Puerto Rican movie down here in South Florida in those time too. generate a little bit of money, but I really wanted to get out of that business. It wasn't really for me. My time was all committed into it. You didn't feel as passionate about it either, huh? Yeah. So how you get into computers? Total Health Rejuvenation Center give me an opportunity to build website. Oh, wow. I tell them, I can build a website for you.

Learning SEO and Content Strategy 5:30

What I did is I went and learned how to built a web site. Okay, so I know there's a different type of web, like WordPress. Back then it wasn't a WordPress, it was HTML. There were softwares around that time that you can put a... I remember back then, I remembered MySpace. You'd have to get the HTML code and then copy it. That's crazy. It was different back there, but it was easier. The hard part that people didn't understand was how to rank those websites. Okay, that's the code I wanna hear how you cracked.

Because most people, they don't figure it out. Most people who get into the business to begin with, their either good medical practitioners, there good on the operations side. But the marketing side, it's a unique individual to figure that out If you don' know anything about marketing, your company's not gonna survive. And 90% of the company here in the U.S. don't survive because they don' have the right structure. Doesn't matter how much money you throw at a company, you're just wasting money. And you know what, one of things that has resonated, I always tell people, if I went back like five years ago, we're a marketing PR company first, medical second.

Today, I actually tell people we're software technology first, marketing PR second, and then medical third. And it doesn't diminish what we do efficacy-wise at a medical standpoint, is that without the first two, you don't have a business. So thinking about how you got in on the technology side, right? Software technology, boom. Then it feeds into the marketing. Hence, that's why you've been so successful. And especially with all the technology coming nowadays, I mean, with the knowledge that I got, people go to school for 10 years.

I know how to code. People have to go get a master to know to figure that out. This is all learned on my own. Dedication is the key of everything. So if you had to pick one thing as you started building in the rejuvenation business that fed into optimizing best for SEO, what is the top number one that you would say? I would suggest content, the right content. What kind of content? Video content or written content Three different types of contents. Shoot it. Written content video content and picture content And picture content.

Okay, you got me on that one. So picture, content, are you saying that you do stuff like in the back end with like the metadata of it? Have you gone to Google image? So when you type something in Google Image, what comes up? Those websites, those pictures of art. Nobody understand that. That's important. And people don't like to read, so pictures, click on that first. People are more visual or like listen. I'm more virtual, I watch YouTube all day and learn. You know? People think that learning is just going to school.

You know, learning never stops. That's what I tell people. Never stops, you know. And we are in the United States where most of the millionaires come from another country. You got the biggest opportunity here to learn. It's a struggle. So what would you say to doctors that are out there that trying to figure out marketing, right? They got their clinics, a lot of these new doctors, they left the ER. What's the first step that they should do when it comes to marketing? Doctors don't have the time.

I want to tell you something. They don' have time, you need to surround yourself with a team that you trust. Somebody that can depend on without having any issues. A business is a team. It's just not just one doctor running the clinic. If you don't have the docs in order, it's not gonna work. Especially in the marketing and advertising side. Even a doctor has to have a database to run the clients. My wife runs home medical billing company. You gotta have a medical billing company to run the billing to you know, so everything you have to trust somebody around the line or get something Statue around around you all the time that you can trust where you Can elevate yourself to that?

It's like you need the doctor for marketing, right? Someone who can actually understand how that whole ecosystem works. The same way how a doctor understands how somebody's body works, you need that expert. And I always say, every great athlete has a coach. So these doctors, they have to understand that, don't be your own coach when it comes to marketing. Hire the right person. My father would always tell me, hire someone who's smarter than you. Oh, yeah, definitely. I surround myself with people that are smarter than me, man.

My team that I got around me are smart than. Yeah, I can give advice. And I think we have this debate. You know, think this is the right way to go. But at the end of the day, if I thing they're right, let them take charge. That's what a leader does. I've been successful in helping opening up all these clinics. I just finally got the opportunity to have something that I'm involved with, with AI Clinics, that appreciate my value as a person and as human being. Of course. So with the clinics, you started in the clinic space in, what, your 2000? Uh, was in about 2010 around there.

Doctors, Teamwork, and Clinic Marketing 11:30

2010, so that's like early on. So you've seen a tremendous shift in this industry. You've see a lot of good, but you also see in a lotta bad. Because you know how it is with anything that can produce dollars, which obviously this business can, you're gonna get people who just want the cash cow. Oh yeah. Tell us a little bit about your war stories of what you've seen since 2010. And listen, you don't have to keep a PG. So. In all these years that I've been working with different clinics and I have seen different What I have seen is that most of these different clinics are not, they're there for the money.

They're not there to do the right thing for their patient. I mean, if somebody, If a clinic goes ahead and doesn't prescribe the the therapy because they just thinking that everybody is the same or they prescribe their right the same therapy for everybody, like everybody's not different. Those are clinics that I will avoid, you know? And South Florida has a lot of problem with some of those clinics popping up out here. They don't like to do the right thing. So let me ask you this. What is the thing to deal with the patients?

Well, I'm not a doctor, so I am not gonna go ahead. But in my experience, A right therapy has to do with three different things. Blood work, physical exam, the whole entire nine yard, we need to go what they are affected by or any food that the body doesn't process the correct way, or any vitamins that their body needs. It's a whole entire comprehensive analysis. It's not just one therapy. So it's all, you know. And that's one of the things, we preach a lot at Liquivita is this is not a cookie cutter method.

When it comes to your health, it has to be a personalized approach where what you're doing is more precision. You're looking at exactly what their lab values are and we're treating specific to the deficiencies or getting them within the optimal range based off those lab value. How you said also is looking basically lifestyle, doing that lifestyle assessment, seeing exactly, what kind of stressors do they have in their life. How do they live their day-to-day life? Which I'm more than sure you guys have worked with a lot of firefighter paramedics, police officers that come and try to get that edge because they're feeling fatigue or whatever.

Obviously their job has certain things that get them exposed to toxins, get him exposed a lotta stress, sleep deprivation, which all of that stuff, I mean, listen. You look at firefighters. I talked to a lot of my friends that I, you know, once I retired, obviously, but I got a lotta friends, that are still in the fire department. And I have guys that have worked with that, are getting diagnosed with cancer. You know? It's like, and these guys are so young. They're in their early 50s, some are in there 40s.

My brother used to work for ENA. He used be one of the account managers. They used manage the city insurance for the police department, firefighters, and teachers here in Broward. I've been with him into a lot of different scenarios. I met the chief of police, I made a bunch of the different police officers. We have this conversation, you know, on the stress level that they go to, 12-hour shift. You know you used to be a firefighter. So, they work three and a half days on, three-and-a-half days off.

But the stress level, every police officer, firefighter, and teachers, because they got to be dealing with all these kids, I really seen how their life is not working the way that they want to just because their not focusing on the right thing. Eating healthy, exercising, you know, even a little bit of yoga or meditating will work wonders. I was talking with my tea guy. He says, man, I got off TRT therapy a few months ago, but I've been eating lean, eating healthy. Have been sleeping eight hours, no stress, and he feels great.

So it's a combination. It has a huge effect on your overall health. That's one of the things, and I know people hear this all the time, mind, body, spirit. You gotta make sure they're all right. Because when one is off balance, the other will fall off-balance as well too. And that's the last thing you need because then your body's like this big chemistry plant. One thing's off, one chemical balance is of, everything just starts to fall apart. So obviously we're talking about firefighters, cops, and obviously me as a firefighter, I've seen a lot of the guys and girls that I worked with get exposed

Industry Problems and Personalized Therapy 17:25

to cancer. That leads me to talk about your journey, right? When you got involved in the rejuvenation side, obviously you had a strong focus on marketing, operations, all of that great stuff. But one of things that you brought up to me, which I thought is something that's important for us to We live in such a high-pace world, right? Everything's so high paced, it's nonstop. We don't stop, especially now that we got the phones, the email right at our fingertips. It's like, I catch myself where I don' have enough time for myself.

I'm too busy taking care of everyone else, putting them through all of our different services and modalities. And I see people losing weight, feeling energetic, and I look at myself, I'm not even doing it to myself, right? And eventually something is gonna turn on that light bulb and say, you know what, I gotta take care of myself. And I've been through that, not to the extent that you have with your journey of what happened with you health, which we're gonna talk about, but when those things happen, It makes me more passionate about what I do.

It make me want to learn more about the world of wellness, biohacking, and allows me to new things to bring into the company to people who might benefit from it. So I want talk a little bit about your health journey of how you ended up getting diagnosed with cancer and how that had an effect on your passion for what you do in the health and wellness business. Uh, that was a tough journey. Um, I basically learned everything about the home run business through the IT side, the marketing side but then the website and so forth.

But I wasn't concentrating on the health side of it. You know, my idea was work, work work. Until I had thyroid cancer. That was the downfall. I really didn't thought that would happen to me. How old were you when you found out you have how long ago was that ten years ago ten? Years ago. Yeah, I was ten. Years. I am I left I Was just recently opening AI clinics recently getting separated a Lot of stress going on find out that I had Tyro cancer. How did you find that? What did he feel? It was funny, the story.

I was so stressed out that I needed to leave the city. So I have friends in North Carolina where I used to go over there, hunt. You know, so I wanted to get away. And so, I told my daughter, hey, listen, let's get from the weekend. Need to de-stress. Something is going on. And the way driving over there in Jacksonville, I stopped and put in gas and I just passed out. Oh, wow. Right then the gas... That's the first time ever passing out like that? Yeah, first. And thank God it didn't happen when I was driving.

That was a brutal ride, by the by, getting out of Florida. Yeah. So you pass out and then when you wake up, where you at? I'm in the hospital. Oh wow. Okay. And, um, they told me they kept me there for 24 hours. Um, They told Me I had a thyroid issue. They didn't tell me it was cancer. That's all me had. A thyroid issues. So I didn' think about anything, you know, maybe it wasn't stress, You know? Maybe I needed to relax. And way back to Florida, though, I made a doctor appointment that discovered that I had a hypothyroidism and was cancerous.

went through radiation. The first radiation that they gave me was a pill. When you get that diagnosis of cancer, and this is important for the listeners because again, you just mentioned it, high stress, your going through a divorce, You had all this stuff going on, which those high-stress levels will trigger disease to develop. Correct. When you got that news of you having cancer, what was that feeling? How did that hit you? Oh man, I thought I was gonna lose everything. My first thing is, my kids don't have nobody to depend on.

And this is without you even telling them about the news as of yet? Oh yeah, nobody know. I living by myself, going to the hospital by my self. Nobody knew that I had cancer. Do you have a strong faith, like connection with God at that point? I don't go to church, but I do pray every day. So you felt connected at the point when you got the diagnosis? Actually, it made me more of a believer. Really? Yeah. It really changed my whole entire state of mind. I was thinking differently. Um, I thinking more about, man, need to figure something out for the family in case something happens to me.

Stress, Health, and Firefighter Risks 22:55

Need to have backup for them. So you're going almost into like fight mode like yeah, all right It's go time like these are some people when they get the news they kind of just give up Oh, and then mentally, you know, your going it's a fight mo typical of Dominican right going into fight, Mo Well, you have to remember, my dad died when I was five years old. Wow. So I didn't have nobody there. I grew up by myself. Um, I have family there and most of my family are wealthy. They have money. And I don't know if you heard about the Furman family over there, but I was the type of guy that I never depended on nobody.

I always was that guy, that always I don't give it to me, I work for it. So I've never wanted nobody to give me anything, so I'm always by myself, always on my own, never ask nobody, and to now and days I still have nobody I am the head of the family, you know, four kids, five grandkids, So when this is going through your head, you get diagnosed with cancer and you're the head of the family, your the provider, right? And now you got to think, I got share the news. Was that harder on you than you just getting the new for yourself on how you going to deliver that to your family?

I wasn't really scared about what I was going through. I more scared of them. How about them? I grew up without a dad, so I didn't want them to be without dad. So my focus was I need to beat this and I needed to create something for the future. And if something happens to me, they will be taken care of. And that's the right mindset. That's a mindset that we all have to, when we get hit with those type of problems, with certain situations that can be life altering, the first thing that you have do is tap into the positive mindset Always.

Right. I was at a biohacking conference this last weekend and one of the biggest topics was the power of mind of how people can actually heal themselves just by having the right mindset. So hearing you say that is one the things that contribute for you to be here today to actually be able to talk about it. Yeah. You get in the mindset, you deliver the news to family, And then you start going through radiation. How was that process of radiation? That was the worst, the worse. Why? The worst therapy I've ever, I'd never been.

I went to 120 pounds. It looked like I was almost dead. Boom. The first radiation didn't work, so they had to put me in another radiation. So I did two different types of radiations. Finally, the second radiation, they shrunk it down. The third, the last part was they were gonna remove my thyroid. But then got that the radiation shrink the cancer and I'm on medication right now for the rest of my life, man. So part of that, you know, One of the things that you mentioned when we talked earlier is this shift of your mindset when it came to the health and wellness where now you're going more the holistic route and making sure that the clients that come into the rejuvenation clinics, it's not just about, hey, come in and get a 1cc shot of testosterone.

There's a lot more to make sure your health or wellness is in check. So you going through this experience, this very strong experience of you having cancer and going to that process and beating it and knowing that there's things in life that potentially contribute for that disease to develop. What is your message to not just the doctors that are listening that have working their butts off, but to every single listener, what is you message of lifestyle, of what they need to do health and wellness wise and why?

In my experience, what I've been through, I figured that this would be a balance. And not only with family, but also with yourself. Primarily with your self. You need to take time to reflect, you need time for yourself, and you time meditate, to think things through.

Cancer Diagnosis and Recovery Journey 27:45

Because if you're not healthy, your not going to help nobody else in the process. If you are in a negative situation, you're just going to bring more negative situations. I always try to be the most positive person around everybody. Always trying to look for solutions. There's a solution for everything. There shouldn't be no stress. And if there's financial stress, I mean, it's always gonna be there. It will never go away. So you just have to deal with that and just keep moving forward. Tomorrow's another day.

I have made millions, and I've lost millions. But I'm still here. Right. And the only thing that matters to me is my family, my kids, and my friends, they support me. Right, right. Everything else is just waiting for God to say, hey, it's your time. Besides that, just be honest. Be respectful. We live in Miami, brother. There's so much to respect here. So much negativity. It's hard to live here and be in a positive environment all the time. That's one thing that I always say, you gotta live with love.

You give love out, love will come back. And that's important, so I appreciate you bringing that up. What do you do now for your health? You've gone through this whole process, the radiation, beat cancer. Now you're on medication for a lifetime. But now when you talk about your Health and Wellness, what are the things that you are doing to make sure you maintain that health moving forward? Well, I got the opportunity that I can basically cook my own food. I don't like eating out fast food, you know, all these chemicals that they put in our food Even though it's hard because it is not the same thing as, you know, I go back to the Dominican Republic, the food over there is more healthier than here.

People live longer over here than about 10 years longer. That's the truth, yeah. So, it just the environment, is the, environment the foods that you eat. It's tough saying it, but it's no cookie cutter for everybody. You just got to find your own solution, the only thing that works for you. And if it works, just stick with it. Make sure you exercise. You know, you pray to God, make sure that you are in that balance at all times. You're going to need it through all these struggles and negativities that everybody goes through, especially now in this era where everybody's so struggling.

I meet so many people in the streets. try to give them empowerment, you know, toss and boom and everything is going to be okay. Just keep moving forward. Don't lose hope, that minute you lose hopes, the minute is that you give up. And if you gave up, there's nothing else that can do. Right, right. You got to keep on pushing. Yeah. So, Joseph, what is the next big thing for Joseph? The next big thing for Joseph is I have a few podcasts coming up. A few books that I'm writing right now. Is it gonna be your own podcast or?

It's gonna my own podcasts. Nice. I wanna be talking about a lot of different ways of living healthy and so forth. Lifestyle changes, traveling, looking at different perspectives on life. Just the daily routine and a daily basis, you know, life is more bigger than just work, kids, and everything else. Spread the message. So and then what's the book about? Well, the book that I'm writing right now is about my life story. Okay. It's taking some time because it's putting the whole entire content from when my dad died at the age of five, you know, that they sent me to the Dominican Republic to stay there with my grandma, and to now and day that went through all these cancer and living a positive life.

So it is all about lifestyle, I have all the books out there that I'm reading. How to, what food to eat. What type of vitamins are good for the body and so forth. You know, little things like that. It helps out my patients, but also people around me, you know. They want to live a healthier life.

Lifestyle Changes and Health Habits 33:05

We're in the health business, so we know that None of our bodies produce vitamins or amino acids that has to be consumed somewhere, somehow, you know. So, it's all spreading the message out there to live a harmonious life between the hormone therapy and the way that you eat and that way you live. Absolutely. So obviously, I'm big into books. We got the different bookshelves behind you of different books that I've read, you know, some of them that are on there. What would be your number one book that you would recommend to a regular person?

Oh, man, this book. I can't remember the name of the person that wrote it. but it talks about how the human brain is more powerful than the body. How the brain works is so powerful that I was reading this article that even says that the human brain even stay active a few minutes after you even die. Wow, that's scary. You know, so it's still producing all that electricity, knowledge, you know. The book also says, also was talking about that our brain is more as a computer. So scientists grab a blood out of our body and try to turn it into a little computer.

And they find out that our blood can hold, I believe, 1,000 databases of information in there. So our brain is so blocked from the knowledge that our history taught us that we don't know how to retrieve that information, you know. Back in the days was, we used to live 200 years, not 200, 200 thousand. But nowadays we barely live to 70, 60, the telomeres was longer in those brains, so they live longer, they healthier. they active all day because there was no TV, there wasn't no entertainment. Yeah, I definitely think that's killing people for sure.

So a lot of those I was reading and that really changed the dynamic of what you think of the body. The body is very complicated, but very simple to understand. Yeah, yeah, that's the truth. Joseph, in the industry, you've been in it for a while, a long time, right? What do you see happening in industry in next five to 10 years? This is still taboo. People heard about hormone therapy and amino acids and IV therapies and so forth, but it's still Taboo, people think that it doesn't work,

Future Plans, Books, and Closing Thoughts 36:35

It's been a big development since the 60s until now. People started to understand, man, our homos are one of the keys of really living longer, you know. It's amazing how people just starting to understand that knowledge when the knowledge been there for years and years, and nobody really have, you know, dig down really into it. That's true. Anything else you want to touch up on? Keep spreading the word and helping other people live a longer life. That's the main key. Money comes and goes. And that's not important.

But if I can help somebody live longer or help someone, that is more gratifying than anything else to me. I agree. Being able to live a happy, fruitful, long life with vitality, with vigor, to me, those are things that are extremely important, right? A quality of life is extremely, it's not just about the longevity, but also the quality. And that comes to what we said before, the personalized approach and making sure that we're bringing in precision to people's health and wellness. So I appreciate it, Joseph.

We're here. I know we're gonna talk a little bit more after the show about certain projects that we might be able to work together on. You know, I'm big into collabing in the industry. Had Carlton were forever young just last week. So let's make it happen. Let's keep the relationships going. Appreciate it. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. Make sure you subscribe, tap, follow, click, leave all the messages, share it with your friends for the next one.