Stem Cells, Autism, and the Future of Regenerative Care

Introduction to Trust and Leadership 0:00

You have to protect your people and when they see that the level of commitment that you're giving to them, they always give it back to you. And also I have the inversion of trust when it comes to, I don't ask them to earn my trust. I give them trust from the first day on. Your job is to keep the trust I gave you." versus you have to work harder to make me to trust you. Well, you haven't done nothing wrong for me, to not trust to begin with. If I just start working with you, so I needed to give you a 10, your job is to keep the 10. And if you fall to a nine, and your jobs to get back to the ten.

Now I put the responsibility on them to, keep it versus them, have them prove it to me. Which it's inverts the pyramid and the employee sees you as a partner, not as boss. And that level of giving and taking is important when you're starting a relationship. What if aging isn't about slowing down, but leveling up? I'm Dr. Isaac Jones. This is the Longevity Leaders Podcast. Welcome to the longevity leaders podcast. I am here with my good friend, Gracie Murphy, who has done so many amazing things in healthcare.

She is grown some unbelievable businesses. One of them called advanced care partner. She sold two times as well as built some amazing systems through better STEM to really help children with autism get some really powerful solutions. We're going to actually talk about that in this, uh, in call. Another thing that she did was she has acquired a separate company called Miami STEM cell. And is helping people all over the world that fly in and see her to really maximize their longevity and transform their clinical outcomes.

Gracie Murphyu2019s Background and Entry into Regenerative Medicine 1:49

Gracie, thank you so much for being here and just really, really excited to have you. One last thing I'll share about you to brag on you is that you, you're the Ernst & Young's entrepreneur of the year. So congratulations on that as well. Thank you very much. Happy to be here. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about how essentially you got into like essentially the regenerative medicine space and, and why you wanted to acquire and then grow and scale Miami STEM cell. And then we can, you know, talk a bit later about, autism and some of the solutions that you're seeing.

You know you sent me video earlier this week and it was just like heart. It just exploded in my heart with so much love seeing this child be able to do things he wasn't able do before and get his life back because of the breakthroughs that we're going to talk about in this call. But why don't we start with, um, with the regenerative medicine element of your passion for longevity and regenerated medicine. Yeah. So after you sell a business and you exit as the CEO, because you can sell and stay as CEO.

Right. Which I did for three years to ensure that my team was taken cared. But then you'll exit your baby basically that you've been working on for the last 10 years of your life. And then, you just wake up and say, what's next? And I promised myself to continue to always do what I love and love what do, and I will not sacrifice to spend my time in anything that is not very, very close to my heart. And regenerative medicine, it is, in it, is the new medicine. It is stem cells and in non-drugs or no medication type of approach.

So I had an opportunity to acquire Miami stem cell. which was at that point about, we had been in business for about 13 years here in Florida, and I was about to move to Florida. So it was a really good opportunity. But most importantly, that experience to acquire Miami stem cell and also grow and operate that company opened my eyes to understand the potential of stem-cell treatments. And it was not until I interviewed a saleswoman that told me that stem cells cured her three year old daughter from autism that I realized that that was what I was here for.

And so I started to investigate the legislation and the law to be able to really form a structure that gives me the legality to offer these services with the most safe and most efficient stem cells in the market. which took me a year and a half to get the framework done. It's got the right to try pathway, which basically gives patients access to products that are being under investigations with the FDA clinical trials. So we created a full legal structure to be able to acquire the cells on behalf of our patients to treat them without enrolling them into the clinical trial.

But the, the sales as well as the protocols that we use mirrors exactly what the FDA is doing with the Clinical Trial for Autism. That's amazing. And, and, is the right to try across America? Can anyone? Right. Nice. Okay. Great. And, and, um, so tell us a little bit of what you're seeing. Cause I mean, the video that you sent over was unbelievable, but I just, I would love for you to share some of the stories perhaps. Yeah, so bad esteem was created not just to be a provider of esteemed cells only, it was really to put the puzzle together.

You know, these kids, they live their lives with a low-grade constant inflammation in the brain. So you imagine you have a lot of inflammation in a brain that never goes away.

Better Stemu2019s Autism and Gut-Health Approach 5:55

It's not like a flu or a infection that you got and then you get rid of. No, they always have this inflammation. And I also have a lot of inflammation in the gut. And as you know, if the guts, you have gut dysbiosis, the toxins, they basically have really the right connection with the brain through the good brain access. So I can treat the brains all day long, but if I don't treat to the the got as well, then it becomes irrelevant. We were created not just to put the puzzle together and to look at the body in a 360-degree approach where when the child comes to us, we start with a really solid baseline of testing to understand what else is happening that's causing that inflammation so we can go down and shut down those pathways.

So we use mesochemist cells, MSCs, that comes from donor umbilical cord tissue. There is really a process for a product to be able to commercialized or be sold to us. where the product has to go through a variation of testings internally in third-party testing to validate that the stem cells are not just viable, but they are very safe, as well as they have no other problems like a DNA or chromosomal issues. They are tested for communicable diseases aswell, sterilability, viability and intoxicants and everything else.

So after that is when we're able to acquire this product and we do these treatments intravenously. So the child or the patient comes in, we offer sedation as well because most of these children cannot sit still for more than five minutes. We can sedate the children for a little bit to access the vein and then we treat them intravinously Then I go home and life is back to normal and just wait and see the results. And typically, what do you see as far as like the administration of the stem cells? How long afterwards do start seeing that there's an effect?

I am seeing as close as soon as four days after the procedure, but the majority of the parents see it one month mark. And that is because it takes time for the stem cells to release exosomes, to communicate with other cells, and really, really moderate the inflammation in the body. So as soon as the inflammation started coming down is when you start seeing better behavior, better speech, you know, a lot of these kids, we pre-treat their gut because we do this biosis testing. So we have a menu of treatments that we can offer pre stem cells.

We maximize the results by optimizing the gut. That's amazing. And it's heartbreaking. I take most of the initial calls with parents to understand exactly what caused the autism, because most these kids were born completely normal. And these parents, they tell me, Yeah. At 18 months or two year old, they stopped listening to this. They stopped looking in my eyes, They stop letting me touch them. they stop answering for their names. Oh my God. It's heart wrenching. it is. I have two boys. So I cannot even imagine my child not even letting to hold his hand.

Yeah, So I take this in a really, really personal level. I grew up with my cousin, he's severe autistic in the middle of a very small town in Brazil. And I know, I, grew with people looking at us differently, like even when we would walk into a grocery store and there was no resources, not even ABA therapy or speech or anything like in America, at least you have this type of resources. So I took this as a mission. This to me, it is not a company. If this is a emission, I am an emission to change how autism is being approached and to show that this treatment.

Yes, they don't work the same for every child. My job is to figure out why, but they work. Yeah. You know, you have done the stem cells intravenously. I have every other month I do it. They work to modulate inflammation. And if inflammation is the most cause of what we're seeing in the symptoms of autism, they will help somehow. So our job is to optimize on how much they can help. Well, the stem cells have secretomes and exosomes, and all these growth factors and things that, which is something I want to make a comment about earlier was, you know, just it's sad because these kids are so young and they're full of stem.

And it's almost like their body is just not, you know, it is going through, like you stated, a process of chronic bioaccumulation of inflammation in the body that impacts, trans neurodegeneration and all of these other issues with the brain. And we know that toxins are involved in this. We know a lot of parents, they talk about how after the vaccine, the day after they got vaccinated or something along those lines. And there's a lotta people that don't wanna talk some of these things, but it's what I've seen for years and years working with so many patients with with families that have children with Asperger's or autism or things of that nature.

But we're just seeing in general, more children being born with type two diabetes, with neurodevelopmental disorders. Like I struggled with ADHD and dyslexia, I was in special needs. I went to a naturopath, a chiropractor and a functional medicine doctor who changed my diet who they did a test on my microbiome. I had candida overgrowth. They had me on a strict diet to cut down sugar and to start consuming things that would help to rebuild the microbiomes of my gut. And honestly, that's the whole reason why I'm here and why so passionate about getting this message out and even interviewing you because You know, this, uh, is the path forward.

And so I, during that, that process of probably around a six month process, I went from being in special needs and to take tests in particular, to then getting straight A's in class. and I then realized like a lot of these kids that have neurodevelopmental disorders, like I did, they're actually not broken at all. There, there's just interferences in their body that need to be removed. And deficiencies, like I also had a really severe B12 deficiency, which I think everyone knows is a precursor to serotonin and dopamine and, you know, melatonin.

And it just is important for so many different things in the body. Detoxification, your methylation pathways, removing heavy metals and biotoxins like mold and things of that nature. which I had a lot of as well, but, you know, it's, going to a place like your, what you're doing and, and understanding this system, which is called better STEM, right? It's called Better STEM. Yeah. And, and, so tell us, tell, us a little bit about why MCS is, you know, is there an ability to experiment with other STEM cells?

Like what, what are your, are people just trying exosomes or people, just, trying secretomes? What, What are, your thoughts on that? Yes. So the good thing about using MSCs, so they are considered adult stem cells, right? They're non-embryonic, they don't have pluripotent characteristics, So they become other cells. What they do, the really good identifying inflammation and then releasing exosomes to combat inflammation. So if you only uses exosomes, it's not as potent as using the stem cells that releases the exo zones.

And remember, these stem cell they multiply every other, you know, every hour they are multiplying. So you're actually getting a multifactor effect of exotomes much more than what you injecting if your doing without having the steam cells or just doing exozomes. In my opinion, we should pair both. You should do intranasal or even like just breathing exosomes on top of the stem cells that is next for us. We have to go all of our protocols are approved. That we have IRB for everything. So we a board that's all the former FDA personnel that review every single protocol that you put it out there for the kids.

to ensure that they are not just safe, but we're measuring everything correctly. Is Barbara part of that? Of course she is. She's a brilliant woman. Definitely my mentor. If it wasn't for her, we would not be here. she's unbelievable. And she so brilliant also. It's great to see scientists that are not staying in one topic only because there are a lot of scientists, they're really good at this, but they don't look to the right or to left. Same thing with the traditional medicine. You know, you go to these pediatricians and you talk about stem cells they sometimes never heard.

And it's just like, you have to look outside of the box and continue to be, educating yourself with the newest technology because that's the future. And if you think about it, it truly makes sense. If you're having inflammation in between the synapses, in-between the brain cells. They cannot communicate. The communication does not pass through the right way. And these kids have a lot of inflammation, especially on the glial cell, which is the immune cell of the brain.

Stem Cell Sourcing, Safety, and Clinical Protocols 16:48

That really affects when you put together with inflammation in the gut, affects behavior, speech, sleep, and the way even how the child functions in each. Like, why are we already so picky? Is number one, their microbiome is completely incorrect or completely off. So we help them with personalized, we partnered with companies that personalize pre and probiotics based on the stool testings. So these parents receive everything at home. So they start almost like a month before the stem cell treatments, after we get their gut results, to optimize the gut in order to get these stem cells to go in and not look at the guts.

Because if they go, you cannot tell where to, right? We want them to up to the brain, but if the, if that gut is too inflamed, they are going to try to be unbalanced. That's really actually brilliant because like, like in order to, the stem cells are like heat seeking missiles in a way. And the ex, certain exosomes, you know, same thing. It's, it's like you want the STEM cells going to the place of inflammation. So I love what you're doing is that you. Almost driving down inflammation in the gut.

And I assume the rest of the body, which is going to happen inevitably if you're addressing the microbiome. And then when the stem cells are administered, they're focused on really going into the brain, Yeah. You're clearing the signal. Exactly. So, so if people wanted to like refer to you or, or get their, get some of the patients they're working with, like plugged into this IRB, you know, study, what would they, w w what they do? Yeah, so they will reach out to us. We'll have a consultation with them.

The majority of our onboarding is virtually and is meant to be this way to facilitate to the parents, you know, the access to. Because, I would say 80% of kids, they're not local in Miami. And the plan for Better STEM is to a national company in the next 12 to 24 months. So we will be opening clinics in every major city so parents don't have to fly, too much to come to us. And so they will call, they're going to get a consultation with the patient care coordinator. From there, we collect the appropriate consents and the documentation and intake forms.

Then they go through a virtual consultation for our doctor and then we'll schedule them for the procedure. Wow. That's amazing. But before that we do the testings and of course optimization if that's needed. And when is the, when did you start? We started, we launched in the beginning of this year, but we started really the company a while ago. It just took forever to get the legality right. Again, that's awesome that you did that. I, it does take a lot of money and time to do it right? Tell me about it.

The system is so broken. that even if you wanted to do everything right, they still not doing it. They're not looking at the same lens that you are, but we got it done. I'm more than proud of me and the team that is able to that. We're the only company, only private company in the United States providing access to stem cells treatments in United states in a legal framework. For parents, this is huge because they can validate exactly how safe our cells are. We have entire chain of custody of the product from day one from the mother who donated the paperwork that was submitted to make sure that she was clean.

The product was cleaned, the baby that born, it was full term C-section. completely healthy, cannot be vaccinated. So there's so much checkbox that they have to meet in order to have a really cool and good product. And we got it done. That is good. Maybe we just double click into that because I think a lot of people, they're getting MCSs just from whatever source, but you're talking about getting it from a pristine Non-vaccinated source, which I think for a lot of autistic, like parents of Autistic children and children that have neurodevelopmental disorders, Which I assume you help as well, right?

Like even outside of autism. You know, that is a game changer because not many people even look into that. Yeah. And I will say also that is clinicians today, they don't really know where to start when it comes to sourcing stem cells. They are busy with, you know, treating patients and because I'm a business person, I look at things differently because i'm not a clinician, right? I am not treating patient. I looked at this as, okay, what can I do to support the best? the patients and the doctors that work for us.

And number one is product. Number two is really like, you have to have great expertise, but you can have greater expertise all day long. But if the product is not the best, it's still not best results. So you always have have both. I actually looked for about eight months, I flew to four different manufacturers from Colorado to you name it. I went everywhere. And I wanted to shake hands with the CEO and make sure that whoever I'm going to be partnering with, they are legit and they're going say what they do.

They're gonna do what their say they were going do, right? So we found the ideal partner. And it's also important that to understand that these are not, there's a lot of theory or myths that this cells that we're using are from the baby, so pro or not pro abortion. This has nothing to do with that. We're not using the cells from baby. we only use stem cells, from umbilical cord, which is after the, baby was born. Even if it was like the baby was born at 30 weeks, we cannot even access those cells because they are not available.

I mean, people are getting stem cells from crazy sources right now. And I had a call with a company that's doing ectopic pregnancy stem-cells and they're like, these stem cell have more growth factor in them than any others. Uh, and, it just, to me is like. Yeah. It just doesn't feel good or ethical from my perspective to be using stem from ektopic pregnancies. Yeah, this is really remarkable what you're doing and that you are expanding globally or excuse me, across America is the vision. And if doctors wanted to like partner with you, is there a way to do that?

Or is it just that they refer to, you know, to your practice? Absolutely, we are open to both, both approach. At the end of the day, it's not who owns what, is how can we impact the community, you know, in a best way and a fast way to save some kids. Now the longer they are, the better it is because the brain is developing, still, but you Even the older kids at 20 years old or even older than that, they still see the benefits of reduction of inflammation.

Scaling Better Stem and Expanding Access 24:58

Therefore they speak, there are more out there, that they're more aware. They have a different way to their executive function, you know, it starts getting better. A lot of questions I always get asked is how many times do I have to do? And we don't know, it can be one time, can it be three, or it could be more. It's depending on how the body is going to accept. But maintaining, like these kids have a lot east overgrowth, a lots of bacteria and fungus in their gut. And as you know it's very hard to treat.

It's hard. Yeah, it's tough. And it can come back over time, which is not fun. But yeah, I think you're right. You need a comprehensive approach. The analogy that I tell people for not just autistic children, but just for anyone in general, is everyone's been born with a different size genetic bucket. Everyone has a difference genetic susceptibility before the bucket overflows and symptoms start to form. So unfortunately what's happening in society is because of the onslaught of environmental toxins, stressors, biotoxins, electromagnetic frequencies, chronic levels of inflammation, the diet that we're consuming that drives inflammation.

People are being born. each generation is being born with a smaller and smaller genetic bucket. So, you know, there could be two people, two children that are twins that were born where one develops autism, another doesn't, and one's genetic. Bucket is bigger than the other genetic pocket. And we just know that they've been exposed to the same food, the environment, but that genetically there's something different, right? And so what's interesting is that You know, you have certain things that this is why when people are like, well, it's vaccines that cause autism or it is sugar that causes autism, or this that caused autism.

It depends on the person and it depends how much exposure they've had. And how much the bucket has essentially filled up to. And whatever tips that over, it could be a car accident. It could an emotional trauma. Could be too much sugar that drives yeast overgrowth. That drives inflammation that causes the buckets overflow and autism starts to take shape. So it's different for each person. But what we do know is that like you're saying is, that inflammation is the driver to neurodevelopmental issues.

And we have to address the reduction and removal of inflammation, which what you are doing is a huge part of that. Then the goal I would have for the doctors out there listening is. That you would also address, you know, the other elements that Gracie's brought up, w which is you, know the microbiome and optimizing gut health. Closing those gap junctions and the diet and removing of the environmental toxins and biotoxins, overcoming deficiencies of micronutrients, et cetera. We talked about this, I think, when we saw each other last time that there was this study done with identical triplets.

And they looked, one of them was born autistic, the other two were not. I'm not sure if he was one autistic but he developed autism. They looked at the microbiome of the mom and the dad and three kids. And the kids that developed autism, it had the bad part of the mother's microbiome and the bed part off the dad's of microbiomes. Back into same DNA, but it's not the same microbiom. So what does that mean? You're detoxing differently. You are absorbing things differently and you're growing bacteria or when you are exposed to something, you cannot clear the same way as the other ones.

So everybody, we have to be unique at certain way, right? And that uniqueness is sometimes what makes us thrive or not. Wow, that's brilliant. Yeah, and the epigenome is so important for the expression of the genes. It's really amazing that post the human genome project that they realized like, gosh, the environment in and around the cells actually dictate the expressions of genes, so that it's a really powerful study, a triplet study. So if a doctor listening wants to integrate this into their existing practice, is that a possibility or are you franchising and just having these as standalone opportunities?

We are open to discussion. This is the perfect time to start talking about this because we're right in the beginning. You know, this is where we created this strategy. And, um, you know. At the end of the day, again, it's not about us or them. It's about communities, about, holding hands and joining forces so we can really create a movement that moves the needle and creates access, uh, to these families for services that know They are not, they are accessible. Flying to Mexico, Panama for these families are, it's a journey, you know, especially, if you had to take a child that has issues with behavior and, um, censoring, putting them in an airplane and traveling, It's very challenging.

So accessibility is very important. Yeah, especially for this group of individuals.

Autism Statistics and the Role of Inflammation 30:48

Look, I'm building a longevity center in Mexico and, you know, we'll be having some really powerful treatments there, but especially, for families that have autism, like children with autism or, a child with Autism, it's difficult to travel and I think what you're doing is beautiful. Uh, brought me to a nonprofit event that she hosted and it was so, so beautiful just to see her heart for, um, the women of the world that have been abused in different ways. We're doing one tonight here in Miami. That's awesome.

Well, I, uh, pray that it just goes really well for you, but you know, what's, it's really cool is that your, your heart in respect to the way that you want to give back to, the world through nonprofits is similar to. The way you build business and that, you're like, where are there problems and how can we address these problems? And create something that's a real solution for these families. And I think you, your, building this at, at the perfect time in history, because just You know, the statistics around autism probably better than I do right now.

But what, what are some of the, this statistics, around how many kids are now dealing with this? Yes. CDC is one in 31, but there's some states like California, even Florida is really bad. It's one and 21. It's a 4 to 1 when it comes to boys versus girls. The earliest diagnostics that they can have is around two years old or 18 months. That's when you can read it, but you notice before that, and I think science and technology It's playing a really big piece here to give access to early diagnosis because we need that in order to get the interventions early on.

But yes, it's 3% of the world population. Can you believe that? That's crazy. You need to think about that some of this is environmental driven, is vaccine driven is whatever we expose the children to. This is just heartbreaking. I have two boys. If I had, it's heartbreaking to hear this family saying after I gave him the MMR stop talking, or he had a big fever we have to take to the doctor. Yes, it's not the vaccines alone. The vaccine is a contribution if you already have the predisposition, right?

It's now one or the other. It is the same thing. Why is it a spectrum? Because it is not only one thing that causes it. There is variation of many things together that activates that gene or activates the autism part of the behavior in the whole. Wow. Wow, so amazing. Well, look, we've got talked about clinical, you know, solutions for a big problem that you're solving, not just haphazardly, but through some of the scientists that have worked with the FDA very closely and that are working with you now and are Setting this up through IRB studies to be done at the highest degree of scrutiny and the.

Highest degree. Of excellence. And so I'm really excited for you before we jump off though, because we do have doctors and health professionals and help entrepreneurs that are listening to this podcast. You were entrepreneur of the year, Ernst and Young's entrepreneur. I would love for. Just to share some tips and tricks on what does it take to. Be a great entrepreneur? in the health space and what are some of the secrets that have allowed for you to be as successful as you are? Wow. Where do you want to start?

I think maybe we start with your leadership because something you shared at dinner when we were in Miami that really touched me was when there was a conversation that was being had where this company wanted to come in and buy your company. They said, don't tell the employees. Don't. Tell your team members what's happening. And you did the opposite. You said. Hey, I believe in transparency. I. Believe in sharing. This is going to be better for everyone in a grow and we're going. All benefit at a higher level because of this.

So you literally took. their advice and did the opposite, which actually created an even tighter culture and community within your organization that I thought was like, wow, that's, if you want to talk about building culture, and building trust, right? That's the kind of transparency you wanna have. But, you know, maybe we talk a little bit about your leadership style and some of the things that have really created stickiness in your businesses. So I was blessed to come from a very small town in Brazil, which gave me a lot of sense of community and family and build the way I am and how I lead as well.

And this is actually a funny story because when I started ACP, it was a home healthcare company. So when they sold, there were 1200 employees, the majority of them, of course, they were nurses. And you don't get to see these nurses every day because they go into the patient's homes. So how do you create culture if you touch your employees? You cannot be in front of them. I always said that if he wanted to come to us, you know, we're a family and one of the employees raised their hands and I said, well, I hate my family.

And I was like, oh my gosh, God, please help me. How do I answer that? I said, well, I know it may not be ideal, not every family is perfect, but the idea of the role of being a family, is to be there for each other, to count on each others, be truthful to each, others be transparent with each. So with that, it creates engagement and loyalty. People don't leave companies, they leave leaders. They leave managers. It all comes down to, do they feel appreciated? How do you make that? So one of the things that we had that was very strong when it comes to the culture, since we were not able to see these nurses all the time, is do I understand a lot of language?

Do I understand if I have to ask them for a favor to go into the shift at 12 o'clock at night, what do I need to do for her to feel that I love her or that appreciate? Is that money, is that time, are that words of affirmation, recognition? You know, there's always like a psychological part that you have play to understand people better. And when it comes to be transparent for my employees, when I decided to put the company through the due diligence process to partner with the private equity, you always have to come down to two things.

What is driving that decision? And what would you want them to do for you if they were in that position? So I always want as an employee to be told, to to transparent so I know what's going on.

Entrepreneurship, Culture, and Transparent Leadership 38:08

And two, my driver to sell the company was not just to take money off the table and retire. It was to create opportunity. To create an opportunity for them that would take me longer to doing it by myself. Wow. And when you partner with a private equity, you have to be extremely careful because regardless of what they tell you, they are motivated by the bottom line. Health care is the opposite. You care for, put the patients first, do the right thing, and your bottom-line is your result. So they don't understand that.

So understanding how to partner, how, to select your future partner and put really good guardrails around. One of the things we did that was probably the best lessons learned I had had with private equity is as soon as we close a transaction for the first time, We brought everybody together, my management team and the private equity team together in the same room. And now we're going to create the strategy together for the next three years, because you're gonna be accountable as much as I am going be.

So we put basically who does what and when in a three-year strategy. So the private equity is also aligned to what we said we can do, not what they said, we must do. That's so brilliant. And that creates a partnership in a different dimension. You can now look at the paperwork. Oh, you said you could do this by mid 2026. Where are we? Do you need an acquisition? Was that, I assume that was your idea, not the private equity's idea. Of course not. Right. Like that, that is brilliant though, but it, it creates like this, It creates this alignment and, and like the culture that typically private equity cultivates in companies that they buy oftentimes turn sour and you know, 95% of the time.

Yep. 95, I didn't know that stat, but yeah, like one of the companies that got acquired through our network, Health Experts Alliance, for $100 million at a $327 million valuation. They came in and they were like a health culture. They did planks every lunch hour together as a team. they got paleo donuts that were deep fried in coconut oil with almond flour and all this crazy healthy stuff. And so the private equity company came and took out the donuts. This is costing too much. The planks are wasting people's time.

Like they have no idea that like doing plinks actually helps them become more productive and efficient. Right? Like, so, people are just leaving. They ended up coming, working with me. they left to work with other companies. And I was like, wow, like what an opportunity you had where a company was growing like crazy. and then literally the growth of the company just went to a standstill. And it was like them just hiring new people, replacing people that left. So it is really interesting. But the way that you structured that was brilliant.

Is there any other tips around leadership around your team and getting them, like one question I would have for you is if you have 1200 team members that are all, that, you don't see, how do you motivate them to do a great job? to engage in a company that has a healthy culture. How do you build a health culture? So we do have, so we always knew we had two touches per year that we were going to touch them. And normally those are skills checks or continued trainings that they come to the office or we go to them, but most importantly, they have to have the first orientation.

So I was present in probably 90% of the orientations to every single one that comes on board. I would take five minutes of my time, introduce myself and tell them, I am here for you. This is my email. Because I want them to know who is leading them. It's important for them know what the mother is, right? Because the employee that is loyal, they need to that there is a straight line between you and them." Yeah. Because that's getting your back. And the promise we had is we will always get your bag.

You know, we'll fire the client for you if they're breaking the boundaries that we set that with our core values. And that has, remember we talked about this, you hire for attitude, to train for skills and you fire for example, right? You have to protect your people and when they see that the level of commitment that you're giving to them, they always give it back to you. And also I have the inversion of trust when it comes to I don't ask them to earn my trust. I give them trust from the first day on.

Your job is to keep the trust I gave you versus you have to work harder to make me to trust you. Well, you haven't done nothing wrong for me, to not trust to begin with. If I just start working with you, so I needed to give you a 10, your job to is keep that 10. And if you fall to a nine, and your jobs is get back to the 10 Yeah. Now I put the responsibility on them to keep it versus them have to prove it to me. Wow. Which it inverts the pyramid and the employee sees you as a partner, not as the boss.

In that level of giving and taking is important when you're starting a relationship. Another thing is like, you know, your org chart, make that a circle. With the patient in the middle, which is your client, everything else is to serve the patients. It's not the CEO on the top and the nurse on bottom, it doesn't work like that. Is a community. Right? But so little things like this, if you lean from that perspective, changes the culture, even though you're not touching them every day. Wow. This is really brilliant.

And my mentor and my partner right now, Horace Schultze and the Longevity Resort business, who built the Ritz-Carlton, it's so interesting. He would focus on culture so much and he would do all the orientations. and He said when Marriott bought Riz Carlton from him, What happened was Marriott stopped having leadership and the CEO and COO do orientations in the different properties that were opening. So they would just send a team. And so there was this disconnect from the team and leadership. He's like, this was one of my favorite things that I used to do was orient them and connect with them, and let them know I'm here for them.

And he'd start his presentation. He'd walk up on stage and he would say, I'm really, really important. I am extremely important and you are just as important as me. So it was kind of like this. People would feel like, oh my gosh, yeah, he is important, Oh my gosh, now I'm important. He's like, I want people to know that the dishwasher, if they don't show up to wash dishes that we don' have Ritz Carlton. Right. So it was, it's, very aligned. I love it. And. Gracie Murphy, you're brilliant as an entrepreneur, as a mother, a leader, and as healer.

You're really leaning into this art of really helping these families and these children. Hopefully together and through whatever God has in store for us that we can make the world a better place and really create a movement that leaves a legacy on this world so that the 3% goes back to 2% and goes to 1% all the way back. Amen. Yeah, every time I get a video or I cry every I do that. You know, that parent, I'm going to cry here. That parent is like, they've been trying to teach the child to ride a bicycle for two and a half years.

And in four weeks after this themselves, the children was riding the bicycle by itself. Yeah. Brushing his teeth by himself. It's just like. If God put me here, it's to do something better and bigger than myself. And this is bigger that myself, and it will be bigger then anything that I have built. I cannot wait for the impact that we're going to doing this in this families because at the end of the day, this what we leave behind.

Mission, Impact, and How to Contact Better Stem 47:48

It's not the money you make, is not how many left, It is who you remember for. Yes. It's just like, this is what I know is my call and I'm not going to stop until I get there because I knew it's needed. Wow. Gracie, where can they follow you? Where can go to the website to learn more? Yeah, they can go to bettersteam.com. My email is gmerphy at better esteem. com. If they want to refer patients or me to talk to families, They can always reach me by email or even by the website. We're here for them.

we take every single time to educate those families because I know it's confusing. Brilliant in both the clinical and business. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Longevity Leaders podcast. A Lungevity Leader's community is on a mission to transform a hundred million lives by 2040. If you enjoyed the show, please share this with somebody that you know, especially another doctor or physician, but also click that follow button. Until next time, stay strong and live long.