Self-Care: Financial Well-Being & Heart Health | Essence Yancey & Dr. Heath Wilt | Season 9, Ep. 360

*** This recording is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be viewed as personalized financial advice and is not a substitute for consultation with your financial representative. Any reference to third-party websites are provided for information purposes only and are not endorsed by CommunityAmerica. Please visit CommunityAmerica.com to learn more about how we can assist you in achieving your Financial Peace of Mind. ***

Dr. Robin

Welcome back to Small Changes Big Shifts. I’m Dr. Michelle Robin. Delighted to be joined today by one of our corporate sponsors, Community America Credit Union. Today joining me is Essence Yancey and Seven Fun Things about Essence. She was born and raised in Kansas City. She obtained a bachelor’s degree from Avala University in sociology and her MBA from Southern New Hampshire University. Her grandparents are professors, so her family always held education to a high standard. Essence has been with Community American Credit Union for six years and is a financial well-being coach and branch manager. She and her husband have two boys, ages 13 and six, which means there’s never a dull moment in their household. Her favorite food is tacos and she could eat them every day of the week. Essence’s goal is to advocate for all things that strengthen our community.  And she believes teaching financial literacy is a way of giving back. Welcome to the show.

Essence

Financial literacy means understanding how finances play a key role in your life and in your health. And for us, what we try to do is get people to understand how money works and how it can benefit them and or contribute to non-successful things in their life. And so we really want to teach financial literacy with every member that we meet.

Dr. Robin

So you love teaching financial literacy to all your members?

Essence

Yes.

Dr. Robin

Essence, why is financial literacy important to you and important for you to take it to the community?

Essence

Financial literacy is important to me because I have grown up and been in a community where I’ve seen people who are not savvy in financial literacy, and I’ve been able to see what has done to their life and all those stages of their lives. And so I think that it’s important, especially for young adults, when you can reach them and teach them financial literacy, they have a better plan to start off to be successful in life.

And so for the communities that don’t get financial literacy, it’s very important that we help them because that means that they’re kind of behind the start line a little bit. So they get maybe a delayed start with that. And so I like to help them get on track so that they can feel like they have successes in life.

Dr. Robin

You know, it’s interesting, as I think about some of my financial health. I think about being in high school and my chiropractor, doctor Lincoln and his wife just harped on me about having credit card debt. And even though I’ve had some over the last 40 years, I get really anxious when I have that. And so I’ve been very intentional about that. So I love that Community America Credit Union so much more than a bank.

What makes Community America Credit Union different than a traditional bank?

Essence

So there are many things that make us different than a traditional bank. But one of the ones that we try to really enforce is that we really care about our members financial peace of mind. And so we’ll help you at different life stages, and we’ll help you build on that.

We like to start with babies and children and young adults, but we really want to make sure that when you come in, you feel that you are in a better place financially, so that all other aspects in your life kind of feel good to you.

So when your financial health sometimes is not as great, your mental health can be bad. And so we want to make sure that we’re helping with those life stages and life plans by helping you be successful with your finances in whatever way that may mean. It doesn’t all mean one does not fit all. So we want to help you whatever those life stages are.

Dr. Robin

Well, that’s great. As a wellness provider, I know that people are either concerned about their health or their wealth, or they’re concerned about not having enough money to take care of themselves. So when you think about helping somebody with their financial wellbeing, why is it important to have goals for their finances?

Essence

So it’s important to have goals because we want to make sure that we’re striving towards something so we can’t wake up and just say, oh, I want to save money. We need to have goals. So you want to save money to buy a car, you want to save money to buy a house. That kind of keeps you on track as well as your advisor, whoever you’re working with, it kind of gives us something to strive for.

So when we have a goal, we know what we’re working towards. So we kind of need to begin with the end in mind, so to speak. And so we like to always have a goal whenever we sit down with any of our members, just to know that we’re eventually be successful in what they want.

Dr. Robin

I’m glad you brought up kind of having a goal, whether it’s to have a car, to have a house, or to save for maybe the next phase of your life. What type of resources does Community America have to help somebody create a plan around their goals?

Essence

So at this moment, we have things called relationship reviews where a banker or a financial wellbeing coach like myself would sit down with you and kind of go over what you’re already currently doing and how your life looks like right now. Looks right now, excuse me, financially. And so in our relationship reviews, we like to talk about your family goals and what your family aspects look like. And if you have kids going to College or if you’re going to College.

And so we kind of build a blueprint for what your life plan will look like based on where you are. And so you can do that by sitting with any of your financial consultants or well being coach. And we like to start there because that gives us a blueprint to do our planning and set our goals for you.

Dr. Robin

So funny. That’s what we like to do with people’s well being as we like to give them. I don’t call the blueprint, but I like that. But give them a plan to help them get to where they’re trying to go and what’s the next best step they can take. So if somebody is brand new to financial literacy, what’s the few tips that someone can use to start to create a budget or a well being plan?

Essence

Yeah. So first let’s try to start with the small things. So it’s overwhelming to try to make such a large goal when you’re first starting out. So we do want to start with kind of smaller things. So I would say start by tracking your spending. You can create your own log or use like a register or online little form or Excel spreadsheet.

And what it will do is it will kind of help you look to see where your money is going. And it will kind of get you in the habit of trying to pay attention more to your budget and what that looks like. I would say maybe 30 or 60 days of tracking it can help you kind of get down in that rhythm. And then we want to create a goal for that budget.

So are we wanting to save money? Are we wanting to build towards something in the future? Are we wanting to stop going out to eat so much? Like, how can we allocate this to an actual budget with a goal? And I would say we should probably start there because that will cause the less stress and it’s very easy to do and to start.

Dr. Robin

I love that. So start to track how you’re spending your money, which will hopefully help you be less stressed. And what we know in medicine is that the number one cause of disease in the body is stress. So I’m curious, as we start to wrap up our show, any other tips that you’d like to give our audience or any other offerings that Community American Credit Union has? If they wanted to start, can they go to the website or how do they find somebody to help them right away?

Essence

Yeah, that’s a really good question. And so you can come into any location you can call into our contact center. If you do have questions, everybody that works here is pretty knowledgeable, and this is what we do. So we are specifically trying to help our members with financial peace of mind. So there’s an answer for you somewhere.

If you are a person who likes to set appointments, then you most definitely can go online and set up an appointment through our online system. But if you have time, just stop by the branch. There’s always a friendly financial consultant around or a well being coach that can meet with you. And we would love to get to know you and spend some time with you and help you get started on that budget plan.

Dr. Robin

Well, that’s a great idea. I want to remind everybody that no one goes alone, and you need to have people on your team that help you navigate life. And I’m so delighted that Community America is my personal and as well as my business banking relationship, as well as my financial planning.

So as we wrap up the show, I want to say thanks so much for taking time to join me today.

Essence

Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Robin

And I’m curious, is there a favorite song, book, quote that’s inspiring you today or has inspired you over the years around financial wellbeing or just around life in general?

Essence

So there is a book that I love that I’ve been reading since my adolescence. And I think that it’s smart for anyone to read it. And I often read it when I find myself going on a journey, financial or not. And it’s the Alchemist. And I really love that book because it just kind of takes us on a journey to follow your heart and whatever’s on your mind, you actually can do it.

They do have a good quote in there that I love. And it’s “When we strive to be better than we are, everything around us becomes better.” And so I love that quote. I live by that quote. And I love that book. And I read it whenever I feel like I am on a journey or need to start a journey. And I don’t know where to go. And so I recommend anyone who is wanting to start a journey to go ahead and grab that book and read it and just see how you feel about it.

Dr. Robin

Well, I love that you brought the word heart in as we’re wrapping up what people call February heart month. I love that you brought that word in. And the book that I’m sharing today is called Living at this Summit. It’s by one of my mentors, Dr. Tom Hill and Brett Blair. And it talks about kind of going on a journey and thinking about where you’re trying to get to in life, and it gives you some steps how to get there. Without a doubt. I know that the team at Community America Credit Union will help you reach your financial wellbeing goals and so, Essence. Thanks again for joining me. And I’ll look forward to seeing you out and about in the community. Teaching people and kids how to have financial literacy.

Essence

Thank you so much.

Dr. Robin

Thank you for joining me for the second part of our show today. And we’re wrapping up Heart Month with small changes, big shifts today. Joining me is Dr. Heath Wilt. He’s with Advent Health Medical Group. Seven fun things about Heath are he’s a Cardiologist with Advent Health Medical Group. He also serves as a medical director for Advent Health Shauna Mission Cardiovascular Service. He is board-certified in cardiovascular disease, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, and cardiac CT. He earned his medical degree from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. In 2019, Dr. Wilt was named a Kansas City top doctor by Ingrams Magazine. Dr. Wilt has always had a fondness for Cardiology. To him, there’s something inherently intimate about the heart, both from a physical but also from an emotional aspect. You can see why I’m delighted to be sharing in this community. Dr. Wilt, what led you to pursue Cardiology?

Dr. Wilt

Oh, my goodness. Cardiology has always been inherently attracted as a field to me. I think if you ask my parents, there is probably thoughts of me wanting to help people and be a physician at a young age. But as I went through medical training, surprisingly, I actually wanted to do it more from a surgical standpoint.

And as time went on, I found that my niche was probably more at the bedside and talking with patients and educating patients. The approach or the appeal to cardiology was the fact that you still get a chance to do some procedures. You get a chance to see patients when they’re at the sickest in the hospital, and then you get to see them recover on the other end and smiling faces.

So there’s just something inherently poetic about that, both from a physical standpoint, a mental standpoint, but also from a practical standpoint.

Dr. Robin

Here’s where you really had me in your bio is that there’s something inherent about the physical and the emotional. And from my perspective as a holistic practitioner, we look at mechanical, chemical, energetical, psychospiritual. So sometimes people have an emotional heart disease as well as a physical heart disease. Tell me a little bit about what those words mean to you when you talk about the emotional heart.

Dr. Wilt

Yes, absolutely. So you bring up a very good point. And this is something I think is quite understated in traditional medicine or what we would comment we referred to as Westernized medicine, which is that whole-body connection. From my standpoint, when I see a patient, two patients with the same ailment, management, it’s going to be entirely different. One patient may be more on the reactive end, another patient might be more on the proactive and meaning I might be more aggressive in trying to play catch up and help the patient recover on one side, on the other side. It’s more of a let’s try to nip this on the backside before it becomes a bigger issue.

But then understanding how the same ailment may not necessarily impact the patients in the same way you might have someone that’s very young, very active in their daily life compared to someone else that might have the same element that is more on the back end of their longevity and is more along the lines of just trying to be with family for a certain duration of time.

Dr. Robin

In Cardiology, there’s invasive and non-invasive. Can you explain to our listeners what the difference is?

Dr. Wilt

Yeah, that’s a common question. That’s a very good question. So in cardiology, cardiology is a very diverse field, and I would argue one of the most rapidly developing and evolving fields in medicine. And with Cardiology, because of several different avenues that we approach to help the heart, there are different aspects of our field.

There are some that are more plumbers of the heart if you will. So those are the ones that we would commonly refer to as invasive or interventional cardiologists that might do something like stents or the evolving field of structural heart disease, where we can do valve replacements without having to do a surgical approach or open chest procedure.

They’re also the electricians of the heart, as we refer to those are the electrophysiologists people that focus cardiologists that focus on special heart rhythms. Sometimes that requires pacemakers, sometimes you can avoid pacemakers through more invasive procedures in that regard.

And then there are cardiologists that are more like myself, which would be considered non-interventional, and we focus a little bit more on the imaging aspects. So imaging, providing non-invasive means to come up with a diagnosis. And as Cardiology evolves, there are even some non-interventional methods for possibly treating patients.

Dr. Robin

One thing I love about a 30-year partnership with Advent Health is that you guys do look at the whole person, and so I’m glad that you’re sharing your perspective on that. What are some things people can do to support their cardiovascular health?

Dr. Wilt

The role of diet and lifestyle cannot be understated. And this is where there’s been a paradigm shift in the last few years with medicine, which is being more proactive upfront in preventing the disease, both rewarding patients for being proactive, as well as physicians for spending more time in education and talking about how this can be avoided or treated without having to resort to medications or invasive meats.

Now, sometimes that’s unavoidable, but that’s really been, I think, the biggest shift in medicine, which is understanding the role of diet and exercise. And surprisingly, it doesn’t take a lot. I think when people come and sit down in front of me, they’re expecting me to tell them to go start training to run for marathons.

And the American Heart Association has shown that if you can walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week,, so that’s a total of 150 minutes per week. That alone will reduce your risk of stroke and heart attack by third your risk of a major cardiovascular event causing sudden death by 50% it starts to reduce risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer, diabetes, dementia.

So that is very impactful and requires very little input. Now, obviously, doing more than that to a certain extent can continue to provide amplified benefits.

Dr. Robin

Is there too much exercise for the heart? Is there any research on.

Dr. Wilt

Yes, very debatable. You’re really looking at patients that would be doing overtaxing of the body. So patients that would probably not be listening to their body, continuing to wear the body down, increasing circulating inflammation markers, cortisol, and that much like chronic stress, physical or emotional stress, can lead to a cascade of events that leads to things like high blood pressure, sleep disorder, muscle breakdown that then can cause inflammation that arguably can influence things like cholesterol or plaque deposit in the heart.

Dr. Robin

Tell me a little bit about high blood pressure. I think that’s probably one of the common things I see in my office as a wellness chiropractor. Are there different types of blood pressure issues? And I would love to have a future conversation with you about Pots, by the way, today’s not the day because I think it’s probably longer than a ten-minute conversation. But tell me a little bit about blood pressure and kind of the different types of issues.

Dr. Wilt

Yeah. So Interestingly, just kind of a sign that you mentioned Pots, which I think some of your listeners are probably familiar with. But blood pressure it the reason I mentioned Pots or carry on for it is blood pressure can be a two-fold issue, too low or too high.

Now, generally speaking, in my practice and I’m sure in your practice as well, we’re managing high blood pressure. And high blood pressure or hypertension is what is often referred to as the silent killer. And this can be very difficult to help patients understand the role of high blood pressure because they don’t feel the changes until they’re often too late.

And those two late changes can be stroke, heart attack, heart failure that we cannot recover from. So one of the things that we often promote and again, this is partly through a lot of the education and promotion through American Heart Association is understanding your numbers.

Don’t be blind to what could be going on, understanding what your blood pressure numbers are. And if there’s a concern, then we need to talk about methods for management.

Dr. Robin

When is the right time to add a cardiologist to your team? And I think about my wellbeing, I’m the hub of that, and I have my massage therapist, my chiropractor, my acupuncture, my dentist, my medical doctor, my hearing. But I don’t have a cardiologist on that team. When is the right time to add a cardiologist to your well-being team?

Dr. Wilt

I think that there are certain times that I would certainly recommend getting a cardiologist involved. And I think that’s maybe after the onset of disease, which is starting to show an impact. And so, this might be something like, again referring to hypertension, where we’re feeling the standard medical treatment, we’re feeling the dietary and lifestyle changes, or we’re adding medications or interventions that are not continuing to control the blood pressure, that would probably be a time to have a specialist of cardiovascular disease involved if we get to the point where we’re concerned about having symptoms of blood flow problems.

So, if patients are starting to demonstrate signs of heart failure or concerns of chest pain or chest pain equivalence, because we do know women are less likely to have chest pain, more likely to have shoulder, jaw, arm pain, nausea. So nonspecific symptoms that’s time to make sure that we’re not missing something before it becomes too late. As an aside or as a corollary, I would say another time to maybe get a cardiologist involved upfront is if there’s a really strong family history, even if you have a patient that seems to be very healthy. But there are also some particular concerns about maybe what their long-term risk might be it may not necessarily be a short-term risk or issues that are going on now, but if there are concerns about maybe something we could do to be a little bit more investigated to see if they’re at a higher risk long term, that might be a good time to get a cardiologist for another view on the case.

Dr. Robin

Great. Dr. Heath, thanks for taking time to chat with me today. How can people learn more about Advent health Cardiology Department?

Dr. Wilt

Absolutely. So we have a hardware system or a hardware screen that you could provide on our Admin Health website. That is a perfect place to go and determine maybe your risk or maybe identify some factors that might be something we need to start looking into sooner. I always educate my patients to be proactive and to either seek out medical help if there are concerns that they have symptoms that they can’t explain, or also just to write down notes and come to your primary care provider and talk about them to see if there might be other issues going on.

Dr. Robin

Great. Two final questions. Are there two non-negotiables you have for your clients around well being, take care in their heart? Are there a couple of top things that if you don’t do those, don’t pass go?

Dr. Wilt

I will obviously help patients, regardless of their risks or their profile. However, I do think that the two most things that I would recommend to my patients is have an open communication with your primary care provider or your cardiologist. I very miss when patients come in, and I’m concerned that they may not be adhering to the medical plan that we’ve discussed. And that might be for several reasons, but I want to find out why and help them get to the goals that they want.

The second is understanding that it’s a two-way street so I can do everything I can to help their heart, and I will be there to meet them halfway. But they also have to be able to incorporate certain changes as difficult as maybe. So we’ve talked about diet and exercise and having a firm line of communication with their primary care provider that has to go if I can do my job for them.

Dr. Robin

Well, that’s one reason we like to use the word in partnership because it’s partnership with people to stay well. All right. Final question. Thanks again for joining me today. Is there a favorite quote, book, or song that is inspiring you today or this past few days?

Dr. Wilt

Oh, my goodness. Well, I’ll tell you, the one song that I will never turn off the radio in my life by the Beatles again. Maybe it’s just the words that spark a little bit of an emotional context. But parenthood came a little bit later for my wife and I than we expected. And I remember when our twins were born and they were so small and sitting in the hospital trying to grow and feed and I used to sing that song so maybe that’s the one that I would say is the one that’s most inspiring to me.

Dr. Robin

I missed the name of this song from the Beatles. What song was it?

Dr. Wilt

In my life by the Beatles in my life by the Beatles I don’t recall that song which I’m not a big music person. Don’t hold that against me. Okay. Thanks for joining me. We started today we talked about one of your fun seven things about you about the heart, the emotional and the physical. My quote today is from Charles H. “The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of” so go out and listen not only with your eyes of the brain but your eyes of the heart today thanks for joining me on Small Changes Big Shifts blessings it’s been a pleasure.