← The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
How a Morbidly Obese Surgeon Turned His Health and Wealth Around ft. Dr. Philip
00:41:43
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- [00:02]
Dr. Phillip
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- [00:30]
Paul Alex
Welcome to the Level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey, guys, and welcome back to the Level podcast. This is Paul Alex and today we have another phenomenal guest. I'm actually pretty excited about this guy. Not only because he's pretty, he's, he's basically a badass when it comes to doing heart surgery and actually educating folks on leveling up their health. So today's guest was once an overweight heart surgeon heading towards his own operating table. Guys. Until he flipped the script and now he's helped thousands of people actually transform their health and avoid the knife. Dr. Phillip, how are you, sir?
- [01:25]
Dr. Phillip
Great to be here with you, man.
- [01:26]
Paul Alex
Dude, welcome to Miami. Well, I know you're in Florida, but dude, you know, it's one of those things. I love talking to guests like you because you've actually set the tone for heart surgeons going ahead and using social media. Dude, we were talking about your Instagram handle and your social media handle, iFixhearts. How long ago did you actually get that handle?
- [01:49]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, that one, I gotta say, was a bit of luck. It was about 15 years ago. Had just signed up for Twitter and just kind of thinking about, you know, didn't want your. Your name out there at that time and was really being, you know, passive and just thinking about what I do and I said, I fix hearts.
- [02:09]
Paul Alex
That's right.
- [02:10]
Dr. Phillip
Bam.
- [02:10]
Paul Alex
That's right. Simplicity, man. So let's get into your life, dude. As you know, the Level up podcast, it actually currently, right now, guys, we are number one in. And man, we're feeling so blessed helping so many people throughout this channel. So let us know, what was life for you, dude, before you actually got into what you do right now and you decided to become a heart surgeon? What led you up to that?
- [02:39]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, so, you know, it's interesting when you ask my parents, they swear that from about five years old, if anyone asked me What I wanted to do, I would always say, not that I wanted to be a doctor, that I wanted to be a surgeon and understand that we have no doctors in our family. We certainly have no surgeons in our family. So I have no idea how I would have known to say this. I went through high school knowing I wanted to be a doctor, thinking I wanted to be a surgeon. Went to college, medical school, and never wavered from it. You know, even in medical school, right, you're trying out all the different specialties, you're learning about what the different types of doctors do. I never had any doubt I wanted to be a surgeon. And so I started my surgical training, what's called residency. And even, you know, at the beginning of your surgical training, there are different paths that you can go down. The different surgical specialties, you know, brain surgery, what's called general surgery, where you do the abdomen, heart surgery. And the first time I did heart surgery, it just kind of grabbed my attention. I loved it. The combination of the way that the heart works, the physiology, the technical kind of details of doing that type of surgery, I loved it. And so I decided I was going to be a heart surgeon and went through the rest of the training to do, do that. And then I. What would say, you know, and this is going to sound a little bit, I guess, kind of ironic, right? But I was just a run of the mill heart surgeon. I was working for a hospital system, you know, my entire career. And sick people would come to me, I do their surgery, do what I could to fix them, make them feel better, extend their life, save their life in many cases. Felt incredibly blessed to do that, that. And then I came to this reckoning because as you alluded to, I was a very unhealthy heart surgeon. I was morbidly obese, I was pre diabetic. And I realized that I was going to end up on my own operating table, so to speak. And I also realized I didn't know what to do about it because the advice that I had been trained to give people, you know, and it's the advice that everyone's heard, eat less, move more. Low fat diet wasn't working for me. It wasn't working for my patients. And I realized that I had to find a different way.
- [05:27]
Paul Alex
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- [05:36]
Dr. Phillip
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- [05:40]
Paul Alex
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- [05:41]
Dr. Phillip
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- [05:46]
Paul Alex
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- [05:49]
Dr. Phillip
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- [05:57]
Paul Alex
Dude, I love this because I have so many questions to ask you. So, guys, if you're listening to Dr. Philip right now in this interview, he fixes hearts for a living. Okay? But at one point in your life, man, you could see yourself. You were gonna be on the table eventually, dude. So when was that moment where you were like, hey, man, like, I need to do something about this before I end up on the table?
- [06:26]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. You know, the catalyst for me, and probably for a lot of people when it comes to their health is when, you know, my daughters were born, two young children, you know, wife that I love, and saying, I want to be here. Right. I want to be there for them. I want to be able to see them grow up and, you know, all the wonderful things that come from having children and grandchildren. And I recognize that I wasn't going to be able to do that, and I wasn't going to be able to do that fully. Right. Because even if I was alive. Right. But sick, like the patients I took care of. Yeah. You know, I do surgery, I keep them alive. We extend their life. They get to see those other things, but they're not really able to enjoy it because they're sick.
- [07:17]
Paul Alex
Yeah.
- [07:18]
Dr. Phillip
You know, one of my favorite sayings is, you know, the healthy man has a thousand wishes and the sick man has only one. And that really started to impact me. It really started at home, you know, as I had my young children. And I really understood that there's got to be a better way. Because if I, as a heart surgeon, couldn't figure out how to avoid getting sick and heart disease, what chances does everyone else have?
- [07:50]
Paul Alex
And, I mean, it's one of those things. You're helping people fix their hearts. So when they come to you and they saw you and, you know you're a little bit overweight, they're probably like, wait a minute. How come he doesn't take his own advice? Right? And it's the same thing for me. I always tell people, hey, you have to be successful at all, all aspects of life. But for most people, they think it's finances. Right. You and I, we know that it's in all aspects, our core value, our family. Your daughters. Right. How old were you when you came to realize that?
- [08:23]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. So when I really, you know, came to the realization Started to change my ways. I was in my late 30s. I was about 37, 38 to the.
- [08:35]
Paul Alex
Time around my time, we just. We literally just talked about this, guys. You know, in 2024, like, I was man in the hallway. It was one of the best financial years of my life. But everything else went to, dude, like, cloudiness, depression. I was on Prozac, guys. If you guys don't know what Prozac is, depression pills, they doubled my dosage. They made me a zombie. You know, merely be like, dude, like, what's wrong with you? I'd be like, I don't. I don't know. Like, I just don't have that. That hit factor anymore. And I was just going downhill, dude. You know, I was 40 pounds overweight, and it came down to my gut and my overall health. So I'm a big believer, man. You know, you got to do what you got to do, right? So with that being said, most people think doctors have all the answers, right? Just like entrepreneurs. I remember when I was a cop, people would be like, but you're the police, dude. You're supposed to know everything. I was like, what do you mean, dude? I'm a cop. Like, come on. I just know the law. But you said even you were getting sicker. How do they feel?
- [09:38]
Dr. Phillip
You know, in medicine, we're trained to take care of sick people, right? And we're really not trained. And in a lot of ways, we're discouraged from thinking about why people get sick. You know, a great example of this. So when I decided I wanted to go into heart surgery, right, A couple of my mentors discouraged me. They said, you know, at this time, at the time that I was making this decision, we had the medications that lower cholesterol, statins, right? And we believe that cholesterol was a cause of heart disease. And they said, don't go into heart surgery in 20 years, there's going to be nothing for you to do, right? We figured out how to treat heart disease. It turns out that they and everyone else were very wrong. And we can talk about why that may have been. But ultimately, today, there's actually a shortage of heart surgeons in this country. There are not enough heart surgeons to do all the surgery that needs to be done.
- [10:50]
Paul Alex
And why is that?
- [10:51]
Dr. Phillip
Well, you know, that's a great question, right? Because everyone looks at that and says, well, you know, okay, we need to train more heart surgeons, right? You need to train, do whatever in terms of schooling and maybe pay them more, right? So more people will go into it. But no one steps back and says, well, why do so many people need heart surgery? And, you know, I now look at it as, there's not a shortage of heart surgeons. There's too many sick people. And this goes for medicine in general. You know, there's not a shortage of doctors. There's too many sick people. And we need to take that step back and say, we. Why are so many people getting sick? Why are so many people getting heart disease, which is the number one killer? Every 33 seconds in this country, someone has a heart attack. Shocking statistics. And we need to step back and say, why not? How can we take care of sick people better? But why are there so many sick people? And that was really the change, you know, in my mindset and the way that I approach what I do in medicine that now leads me to be able to help people so much better.
- [12:01]
Paul Alex
And this actually is going to lead us to our next questions. Doctor, so your next question is, you could have stayed in the hospital doing surgeries. Okay. But you walked away to teach people how not to end up on your table. So what was your primary reason? Was there. Was there a specific patient? Was there a family member? What made you really just go over the edge and say, you know what? I need to go ahead and educate other people?
- [12:29]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. So, you know, I start the opening chapter of my book. Stay Off My Operating Table, is actually about one of the patients that really, you know, pushed me to make this change. And that was a very unfortunate young woman in her late 30s, mother of young children, and she ended up on my operating table with just the devastating problem. Wow. And we couldn't save her.
- [12:57]
Paul Alex
Wow.
- [12:57]
Dr. Phillip
You know, we worked. My team and I worked 12 hours trying to save her life and couldn't. And at the end of that, what I realized was she never should have been there in the first place. Right. It wasn't a matter of, you know, we didn't have the surgical technology or, you know, our, you know, team wasn't good enough. It was a matter of there were so many missed opportunities when someone should have said, you're on your way to severe heart disease, you know, and instead of just take these medications. Right. Change the way you live your life, change. Change the foods that you eat, change your activities, those types of things that are so powerful that we don't think about in medicine. And instead, a young woman loses her life, young children lose their mother, because we didn't do enough to keep her from ending up on the operating table. And that was really a key moment that I said, we got to, you know, we can't just keep trying to put band aids on the problem.
- [14:10]
Paul Alex
No, absolutely. And, and I think that's very noble of you, man, to be honest, because, you know, I come from law enforcement and law enforcement really fulfilled me. I love helping people, man, and that's, that's why I made the level of podcast self help. With that being said, do you believe that people, especially our listeners, should take extreme ownership and actually getting regular blood tests? What do you think are some common things that the average American can do on a yearly basis to keep their heart in check?
- [14:44]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, just asking that question is a great start. Right. And it is about taking ownership. It's about understanding and realizing that the healthcare system as it exists. Right. Isn't about keeping you healthy. Right. It's about taking care of you when you're sick and look all around you. Right. And most of us are sick. Another shocking statistic is that 90% of the adults in the United States are what we call metabolically unhealthy. Wow. That means their body isn't working like it should. And that manifests as low energy brain fog, being on, you know, needing to take multiple medications. And if you just give your health over to the healthcare system, right, you're going to get the same results as all those people around you. But the people that do different, the people that get better results, the key thing that they do differently is they take ownership of their health. It's not about the doctor making you healthy, it's about you doing the things. And that includes getting labs done, getting something like a coronary artery calcium scan, that we can talk about, putting the habits in your daily life so that you don't end up like everyone around you. You don't end up sick, needing the medications, needing the surgeries.
- [16:15]
Paul Alex
So for everyone listening right now, doctor, what is probably a request that someone like myself listening to the podcast right now can go to their doctor and ask them, like, hey, I want to take these tests to check my heart out or to make sure that I'm doing well. What would that be?
- [16:33]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. So the first thing I would tell people to do is ask your doctor, am I metabolically healthy? Now, there's a good chance your doctor is going to kind of look at you and say, I'm not sure because I don't know what that means. Right. It's very unfortunate, but that doctors don't know these concepts. But if people want to figure it out for themselves, there's five easy numbers that we look at. Two of them. You don't even need your doctor for. Wow. So one is your waist circumference. Just get the tape measure out at home, you want to measure just above the level of your belly button. You want to do this, you know, first thing in the morning. And if you're a man, you want that to be less than 40 inches. If you're a woman, you want it to be less than 35 inches.
- [17:19]
Paul Alex
Wow.
- [17:20]
Dr. Phillip
The next one, again, you can do it at home. Just about any grocery store, pharmacy these days. And every time you go to your doctor, it's usually going to get checked. Your blood pressure, blood pressure is a very key indicator of what we call metabolic health. You want it to be less than 130 over 85 without the use of medications, and then three simple blood tests. And you know, the kind of sad thing here is that most doctors actually do get these blood tests on people as part of the routine checkup. They just don't look at it the right way in terms of metabolic health. So you want to know your fasting blood glucose level, you want to know your HDL cholesterol level, the so called good cholesterol, and you want to know your triglycerides, which is also on your lipid panel. Now, these five measures are going to tell you whether or not you're metabolically healthy. You can go to my book, you can look them up, or you can go to my website, iFixhearts.com, right on the front page. Free quiz. Just hit, take the quiz, put those numbers in, you'll figure out if you're metabolically healthy or not. And metabolic health, it turns out, is the root cause of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease. It turns out that nine of the top 10 leading causes of death every year in the United States are due to poor metabolic health.
- [18:50]
Paul Alex
Wow.
- [18:50]
Dr. Phillip
And yet doctors don't talk about it, patients don't know about it. And it's something that we need to focus on more. So start there with your doctor.
- [19:01]
Paul Alex
So I just, I got keyed up when you said something, man. You said doctors don't talk about it. Why is that? Why aren't doctors talking about this more? I mean, obviously you're here educating us, man. But I think, you know, why is that? Why do you think doctors are not speaking about this?
- [19:20]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. The answer is because doctors aren't trained to think about it. And the reason behind that is because it, it's not a medication to fix this. Right. It's not. Here's the prescription. It's change the Food that you eat, change the activities that you do. And these are things that doctors really, again, aren't trained to think about. The doctor is there to figure out the disease that you have and what medication or what surgery we can do to fix it.
- [19:55]
Paul Alex
Wow, Love that. Love that. So if you had one wish for every family in America right now, listening to this podcast, what would that be? What would you tell them? Like, hey, I care about you. This is the action you need to do right now.
- [20:14]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. You know, my wish for all those families is that you don't need me. Right. You don't need the doctor. Now as a business guy, you're gonna say, wait, wait, wait, that's a horrible, horrible strategy. Right? You don't want people not to need you. But that really is the reality. I want people not to need me. And what I want to do is empower them to keep themselves healthy, to take care of themselves.
- [20:39]
Paul Alex
Good, good. You know, you're, you're a servant leader, my friend. I love that. So let's talk about transformation and beliefs now. Okay. Now, back when you were obese as a heart surgeon, few questions I have when it, when it comes to that, what were you eating? Okay. And, and doing as far as, you know, physical activity at your lowest points and what do you do differently now?
- [21:12]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. So, you know, back then I was eating the food pyramid, essentially, right. You know, I had learned about low fat diets and the food pyramid and, you know, grains at the base. Eat your 5 to 7 servings of vegetables a day. And I'm not going to say I was perfect, right. I, you know, ate some junk food, but I think my diet was healthier than most people's. I was raised in a household. My older brother is a type 1 diabetic. So we really didn't have sugar in the house. We ate all of the, you know, kind of low fat stuff, right. We had the skim milk instead of the regular milk. We had the margarine instead of the butter. And you know, my parents, I think, did a very good job, right. Of trying to construct a healthy diet for us. And yet, you know, I was obese from a very young age and inactivity was never the problem. Right. I played sports during school, ride my bike. You know, I grew up in the pre Internet era, so, you know, I'd hop on my bike, go to my friend's house, and I don't think I was underactive. Right. You know, I wasn't any sort of high level elite athlete certainly. But, you know, like I said, I played sports and I stayed active and yet I became obese. The major change I made and the major change that I recommend people make is to get the processed food out of your diet. Eat real food. And for people that are metabolically unhealthy, it is essential to reduce the amount of carbohydrates that you're eating. So low carbohydrate diets that consist of whole real food, this is the primary thing that's going to cause you to get healthier.
- [23:12]
Paul Alex
Makes sense. Makes sense. So is it true that you have said before you don't believe in dieting? Correct? Yes.
- [23:22]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. This shouldn't be about temporary changes in what you eat. This should be about setting the lifelong habits that are going to keep you healthy.
- [23:33]
Paul Alex
I love that. I love that you don't believe in dieting, but you believe in getting healthy at the root. So you already said what that means. And a lot of people, you know, when they try to lose weight or they try to go ahead and get healthy, they're like, oh, I need to go on a diet. No, I was just like, this is a lifelong change. Right. It's a choice that you want to do. What do most people wait until it's too late to care about their health? And what would you say to them right now?
- [24:02]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, you know, the. Again, most people wait because it's not their priority. Right. They think that it's not going to happen to them. And yet statistically we know it is overwhelmingly going to happen to you. Right. I gave the statistic before that 90% of the adults in this country are not metabolically healthy. And the earlier you pay attention to it, the better. The good news is this is reversible and it's reversible at all stages. But it's easier to reverse the earlier we get to it. But, you know, we see some amazing transformations. Let me tell you about a recent, you know, client of ours. He's a pilot, right. So, you know, doing very well, high respect job. And he found himself very unhealthy. Unhealthy to the point that he was going to need to stop flying because his diabetes, which he didn't know about, was out of control. And he had what looked like it might be pretty significant heart disease. And thankfully he was able to come to us. We were able to in three months completely reverse his diabetes. One of the main measures we look at to, you know, assess diabetes is a measurement called hemoglobin A1C. It tells you your average blood sugar in a over about a three month period normal is less than 5.7. We diagnose diabetes when it gets to 6.5 or above, and his was over 10. And he did not know he was diabetic. He just happened to get his annual blood work, and all of a sudden, you know, there it is. And 10 means that you can't fly. The FAA says, you know, you can't fly when your diabetes is that under control. Now, he goes to his regular doctor and his doctor says, don't worry, we'll put you on some medicines and we'll get it, you know, under control. But he wasn't exactly happy with that, and he started taking control of his health. He looked around, he found us, and he came to me. We changed some things about what he eats. We changed some things about, you know, his activity. And within three months, we got his hemoglobin A1C down to a normal value without the use of medications.
- [26:42]
Paul Alex
Wow.
- [26:42]
Dr. Phillip
And he lost about £40 along the way, which I always say is a good side effect, but it's not our primary focus. And now he's going to get his license back and can get back to his livelihood. But more importantly, what he tells me is he can enjoy being with his children. He has more energy to play with his kids and to enjoy that part of his life.
- [27:12]
Paul Alex
And that's huge. That's huge because what you're doing is transformational. You know, when we had the talk earlier today, and, you know, I was talking to my doctor and he prescribed me more on medication and medication this, medication that, and there could be major side effects, but you were able to do that without prescribing any additional medication. Is it possible to actually know how you were able to help him with what he was, what he was having at that time? And would. Is this possible for anybody?
- [27:48]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, it is. And I tell people, you know, the concepts are very simple. I said it before, right? It really comes down to eat real food. You want to eat the things that grow in the ground and then eat the things that eat the things that grow in the ground, right? Meat and plants. Now, the good news, right? And you talked about diets, right? And this kind of negative connotation. And the reason that diets don't work real well is because you try to get people to restrict, right? You try and rely on their willpower, you know, and instead, what I tell people to do, you can eat as much food as you want. You just have to eat the right foods. And again, the good news, right? And this is going to sound shocking coming from a heart surgeon is that red meat is the most nutrient dense, bioavailable food that we as humans can eat.
- [28:45]
Paul Alex
Wow.
- [28:45]
Dr. Phillip
And we should be eating it in abundance.
- [28:48]
Paul Alex
Yeah.
- [28:48]
Dr. Phillip
And I basically tell people, eat all the meat and animal products you want. Eat when you're hungry, eat until you're full.
- [28:56]
Paul Alex
Yeah.
- [28:57]
Dr. Phillip
You want to add a little bit of plants. You can, you don't need to, but you can add some plants. You might be able to add some fruits, you know, as well, depending on where you're at. You got to be careful because a lot of them are pretty high in sugar. But if you just eat meats and vegetables until you're full, you're going to improve your health. You're going to lose the weight and you're not restricting yourself. It's not about what you're not eating. It's really giving your body what it needs to function optimally.
- [29:28]
Paul Alex
I love that, man. That's, that's, that's very powerful, the fact that you're able to help people just like that by changing their lifestyle and just pushing them and educating them through that. So let's say, for example, if you were to me, 20, 24 Paul, and I was 40 pounds overweight, man. Can you walk me through the process of how you help your clients? I come to you with the problem. Hey, I'm cloudy, I'm depressed. I get chest pains from a heartburn, from eating, you know, drinking too much coffee and carbonation. What would you do to a client like me?
- [30:09]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah. So, you know, the symptoms you describe really tell us just about everything we need to know. But it's always better to get, you know, go in detail. Right. You want to dig down into those numbers. So we get the lab work. Right. And I mentioned those five basic tests. That's part of it. You want to know what your insulin level is. You want to know if you're insulin resistant. And then another very important test that I recommend for just about everyone is the coronary artery calcium scan. We mentioned it before. It's a very simple, non invasive test. Takes about five minutes to do. It's a what we call a CAT scan. So it's, you know, an X ray type of test. Most places it's going to cost you about 100 bucks. And it shows you heart disease at its early stages.
- [31:00]
Paul Alex
Wow.
- [31:01]
Dr. Phillip
So we want to get that scan, we want to get the blood work, we want to see where you're at. And then what I usually do with people is say, you know, take me through your day. Right. What do you Eat. What do you do? You know, what's your activity like, what's your sleep like? How are you dealing with the stress in your life? Right? These are the key pillars of your health. And then let's start making some changes, right? And, you know, some of this comes down to personality, right? Some of us are. You know how it is, right? Where you just want to jump all in. And I say, okay, great, just eat meat and vegetables for the next two weeks, right? Like I said, eat when you're hungry. Eat until you're full. Eat as much as you want of it. You know, don't put a lot of sauces and stuff like that on, but just animal products, vegetables, and let's see how you do. Other people, they need that more gradual, right? So I might say, okay, you're drinking six sodas a day. Let's cut back to three sodas.
- [32:03]
Paul Alex
Yeah.
- [32:03]
Dr. Phillip
Let's see how that does, right? You can start to make these very simple, small changes that will eventually get you there. But, you know, at the end, we really want to get you to a point where you're eating whole, real food, you're getting a decent amount of activity. You don't have to go crazy at the gym. You don't have to be there six hours a day. You get decent sleep, very important. And you do something to offload that stress that we all have in our lives, right? And that can be, you know, meditation. That can be religion. That can just be, you know, having a good community of friends and family that you spend time with. And those are the basic pillars. That's what's going to get you there.
- [32:44]
Paul Alex
I love that. And then you're able to help people throughout the United States and certain parts internationally, correct?
- [32:51]
Dr. Phillip
Yep.
- [32:51]
Paul Alex
Okay. And then is this something where a client, like, if I wanted to become a client, I would have to fly to your. One of your locations, or is this able to. We're able to do this remote. How does this work?
- [33:03]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, so my medical. My preventative medical practice is completely telemedicine. You know, you don't have to come see us in person. We figure out local. You know, we'll figure out getting your blood work drawn locally. We'll get you your coronary artery calcium scan done locally, and then you're going to meet with my team and I. I have an amazing nurse practitioner, I have amazing health coaches that work with me, all done online remotely, telemedicine. And we work with patients in all 50 states and internationally.
- [33:36]
Paul Alex
And typically the type of patients that you get or you could Say, are they individuals are busy or are you getting the stay at home mom? Like, who's your ideal client that usually comes to you?
- [33:49]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, so it's mostly going to be busy executives, you know, people that are, you know, I can relate to traveling all the time, which I do. I can relate to being busy. Right. I'm still an active hard surgeon and I do this telemedicine practice, you know, have one book, second book is underway currently. So I understand, you know, this isn't. Yeah, it's great if you can go sit on the beach all day and, you know, spend your time at the gym and have all your food prepped for you and things like that, but it's not necessary, Right. I have people from all walks of lives that are successful at doing this. And the key thing is that they want to do it right, they want to take control of their health. And if you come to me and say, I'm willing to, you know, take control of my health, my team and I can work with you and we can get, get things fixed up for.
- [34:53]
Paul Alex
You, you're essentially making it faster, easier and simpler for folks, busy folks. And I feel you on that traveling, man. I've been traveling for the past, you know, few weeks now and, and I still got three more locations to go to after this week. But yeah, it's life, man. Life is good. So with that being said, you talked about your book and you're working on your second one. Congratulations on that. On the first one, you self published that book, correct?
- [35:21]
Dr. Phillip
Correct.
- [35:22]
Paul Alex
And how many copies did you end up selling?
- [35:24]
Dr. Phillip
We're up over 60,000 copies and still going.
- [35:28]
Paul Alex
It's amazing, man, 60,000 copies. And then for, for someone who hasn't read your book yet, what would they be able to find? What type of information would they be able to find inside your book?
- [35:37]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, it's really the blueprint, how to do this. Right. I tell people, again, you don't need me to do it for you. My team and I are here to facilitate, make it easier for you if you want to work with us. But you know, I, I am so blessed and amazed at the number of people that write to me and they just say, you know, I read your book, I listened to your book, I downloaded it, whatever it is, and it changed my life. And, you know, I was able to follow the simple guide that I laid out in the book and have profound impact on their life. So I want, you know, as much as possible, people to do that. And we have a special offer for the listeners of this Podcast, just go to iFixhearts.com LevelUp and you're gonna get free ebook. You're gonna get the full book and take it on yourself and make the changes and level up your life.
- [36:39]
Paul Alex
Dude, I love that. That was a good setup, dude. The level up your life. I love that you had to add the sauce on there. But, guys, you heard from Dr. Phillip? We're sending you guys up with a free e copy of his book. And this is for anyone that wants to go ahead and level up their health, wants to go ahead and follow the exact same processes and steps that Dr. Phil has been able to set up for you guys. So make sure to take advantage of that. With that being said, let's go ahead and ask about leveling up your legacy. Okay? So if your kids or grandkids listen to this podcast one day, I'm pretty sure they will. What do you hope they remember about the life you lived and the hearts you saved?
- [37:22]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, what I hope they remember ultimately is that I did what needed to be done. Right? I didn't take the easy path like you said. I could have just stayed a heart surgeon. I had a very comfortable life doing that, but it wasn't enough. And I chose to go above and beyond that. And my motivation has always been to help as many people as possible.
- [37:51]
Paul Alex
I love that. And that's what fulfills you?
- [37:54]
Dr. Phillip
That's what fulfills me.
- [37:55]
Paul Alex
And then what? What's in it for you in the future, man? Is there like, are you ever going to retire? Are you thinking, like, hey, you know what? I'm going to start this venture and then I might go into something else in the future? What is the future holding hold for you?
- [38:09]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, you know, I. I don't see myself as the retiring type, but like you said, things are morphing, right? I do less surgery these days. I do more of the preventative. At some point, I'll probably stop doing surgery and do whatever comes next so that we can really impact as many people as possible.
- [38:31]
Paul Alex
I truly believe you need to get on more stages, man, if you're not already doing that. I think you're a great speaker. I think that you have a very powerful message because you're keeping it simple. See, and that's one thing that I've mastered in business is simplicity. Scales, complexity fails. Right? So the fact that you're able to keep it simple, show people how to optimize their health without giving them more medication is powerful, bro. It really is. With that being said, this is a self help podcast, so we have currently right now, Emilio, we have about 3 million downloads a month, correct? Yes, yes. 3 million downloads. All right. That's about 100,000 downloads a day, my friend. So for those 3 million downloads and those millions of listeners listening to this podcast, man, give us one word of motivation to level up their life today.
- [39:24]
Dr. Phillip
Really, the one thing I would say is take charge of your health.
- [39:28]
Paul Alex
Take charge of your health, guys. And Dr. Philip, he's giving you guys the resources to do that. We're going to drop the link later on on this podcast. Gu. And with that being said, that is it. That is the level of podcast with Dr. Philip, guys. IFIX hearts. Make sure to check it out and where can they find you?
- [39:46]
Dr. Phillip
Yeah, really? Ifixhearts everywhere. So ifixhearts.com and on all the socials I'm at. Ifixhearts.
- [39:53]
Paul Alex
Love it. Love it. Ifix hearts, guys, I'm gonna be make sure to drop this on my profiles as well. Paul Alex and the level up with Paul Alex. Guys, we are currently ranked number one on Apple podcast for the past. Well, how long has it been, Emilio? Like five, six months now? Yeah, about five to six months. And you guys know Emilio. He is the man with the plan behind engineering this podcast and we're trying to go ahead and actually rank top five in all categories, guys. So get us next to Rogan, please. With that being said, guys, make sure to tag a friend that wants to listen to this. Share this with a family member that you care about. I'm going to have my parents listen to this because they need to learn. Listen to Dr. Philip for sure. And with that being said, guys, it's Paul Alex. I'll catch you on the next one. Thanks for listening up to the Level up podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.