Dr. Bill Cole of Key Cellular Nutrition: Getting An Upgrade; How Anyone Can Build Habits For Optimal Wellness, Performance, & Focus

Better sleep habits. We’ve heard it all before but practicing it is a different story. Make the house a little cooler, keep your room black, get off of the phone, tablet, laptop and TV a few hours before you plan on sleeping. Additionally, I know this is a tough one for a lot of people, we have to stop eating like 2–3 hours before we go to bed, at least.

As a part of our series about “How Anyone Can Build Habits For Optimal Wellness, Performance, & Focus”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Bill Cole.

A prominent figure in the Functional Medicine space, Dr. Bill Cole, is the founder and creator of the Key Cellular Nutrition (KCN) and Cellular Health Accelerator (CHA) program, where he and a team of more than 30 dedicated health experts with diverse backgrounds (FNTP, RN, NBC-HWC, Certified AIP Coach, RYT, ND, PHC, MS, MBA) educate individuals on the steps needed to start improving their infrastructure of well-being.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory? What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.

I was playing in a high school baseball game and I went to sprint as hard as I could and I heard a pop. I immediately went down with an excruciating pain in my head. They rushed me to the hospital and gave me some medication and sent me on my way. Unfortunately, that prescription didn’t do anything for me and every time I would exert myself, I would hear that same pop in my head and get a vicious headache. I went to 2 more medical doctors. The first one told me I had a sinus infection and gave me another prescription. Still, no luck. The second told me I had an ear infection and they put me on antibiotics which again did not help. It just so happens that my friend’s dad was a chiropractor and told me to come see him. Reluctantly, I went and he adjusted my neck one time and the pops and pains never came back. It was at that point, I took a key interest in natural healthcare.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

My dad. My father always worked hard but didn’t necessarily love what he did. From the time I was really young, he ingrained in me the importance of pursuing a career that I loved. He also taught me that hard work is not the equation for more money. Rather, it’s high value that equals more money. So I focused on and continue to focus on providing as much value as possible to my clients and to the marketplace in general. Not simply for more money but for more impact. I want to change the way we do health in this country and beyond and that obviously takes a bit of money to do that.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?

In natural health we talk a lot about and look for the root cause when it comes to our clients/patients. As a natural health expert, I prided myself on the fact that I was getting to the “root cause” and mainstream medicine was only focusing on managing symptoms/disease. For the most part, my clients always received good results but it didn’t always last and sometimes I came across people who didn’t get any better at all. In my ignorance, I would chalk it up to the fact that they either fell off the wagon or, in the case of those that didn’t get better, I believed that they just weren’t following my program.

Then my best friend and business partner suddenly and inexplicably began to lose his health. His energy disappeared, his digestion was messed up, his adrenals were shot, he wasn’t able to handle stress, and the list kept getting longer despite him doing all the things we knew to do. So he went to expert after expert and nothing was helping. He just kept getting worse. He was ready to give up. At times, he literally didn’t even want to live anymore but something made him go to this one last doctor and after describing what had been going on with him the doctor replied that he thinks he has heavy metal poisoning. He was devastated when he heard those words because that was one of the first things we looked for when his health started slipping and his blood work came back perfect.

However, the doctor explained that he had to look at the cells of his body, not the blood. Sure enough the doctor was right. Once he fixed his cells…he got well. Even though his blood work looked good, the health of his cells were ruined and his body was slowly shutting down. So, all this time, I was doing the same thing that mainstream medicine was doing which was covering up symptoms by changing how the blood work looked. It was not until I learned that unless you fix the health of the person’s cells…you are only covering up symptoms. You have to fix the cell to get, feel, and ultimately age well.

The road to success is hard and requires tremendous dedication. This question is obviously a big one, but what advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your success?

The road is long and the road is hard so having a real reason why you want something is key. However, simply having a ‘why’ is not enough. When times get tough and you want to quit, you have to learn to hold your ‘why’ in front of you. Once you have your ‘why’ you’ll have the motivation you need to start taking action. Then you have to learn to celebrate all of your small wins along the way. This builds momentum and that momentum is the key to keeping your motivation where it needs to be-to keep taking action and ultimately to reach your goals!

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

See You At The Top by Zig Ziglar. It was his positive outlook that got me thinking in a different way. For a long time I was the kind of person who doubted if something was real or could even happen, then when it was obviously real/happening…I would doubt that it could last. After reading that book I learned how important it is to believe before you see because where your attention goes your intention follows. This is not just something that sounds good either. There is a lot of science behind this. When you learn to stand on the things you believe while you prove the things you cannot see…That’s when the greatest things in life can happen! So the “law of attraction” becomes the “law of being at-action”.

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” It’s God’s Word showing us that what we believe has a profound effect on who we are. It’s all tied together. First, you have to believe. Next, you have to persevere and lastly, you achieve. Then repeat. We’ve all heard, “you reap what you sow”, right? But we don’t reap immediately after sowing. First, we plant. Then, we cultivate. Lastly, we reap. The best part is that we always reap more than we sow. If you plant an apple seed, you don’t just get one apple. You get a tree with dozens and maybe hundreds of apples from that one seed. So start sowing!

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

Our Cellular Health Accelerator (CHA) program! This program is truly next level. We’ve taken the best ideas from other industries that result in mega success and applied them in a way that virtually guarantees the success of our clients. The truth is, we know how to use food, supplements, and lifestyle strategies to fix the cells. However, I think we all would agree that oftentimes we know what to do to hit our goals. Yet, for some reason we don’t do the things, we don’t do the steps, we don’t eat the foods, or whatever it is. Well, there is a reason for that. Thus, the CHA program has been built to not only give you the ‘what to do’ but also give you everything you need to be successful. The science is in and it’s clear. We understand how big of a role that coaching, community, accountability, and support play in someone achieving success with anything but especially with a health program. When a person isn’t well there are actual physiological problems that can stop people from achieving success. So, we have developed CHA around creating and supporting the version of you that does do the things so you can have your wishes, your goals, your hopes, and ultimately, your health. If you think about it like this… It’s about becoming the person that you need to be, in order to feel the feelings that you need to feel, in order to make the choices you need to make, to be able to do the things that you need to do, to have what you want to have! So it’s Be. Do. Have.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain a few reasons why it is so important to create good habits? Can you share a story or give some examples?

The human brain is made to be habitual. It will demand that you do something because it has been conditioned over time by your behavior. Whether bad or good, our habits are taking us somewhere. Therefore, we have to replace the bad habits with good habits. One thing to note is that it’s not about restriction or punishment rather it’s about you diverting your attention away from that bad habit because again, where your attention goes your intention follows. So the more focus we give the new — good habits the more they will grow and overtake the bad. You can use the same formula for success that I mentioned earlier here as well. Have a ‘why’, take action, celebrate small wins, build momentum, keep motivation high, and win! I see this happen everyday with my clients. Their biggest fear is that they will not be able to stick to the program but once they apply that formula they’re off to the races and they achieve the transformation they desire. With that said, it’s important to understand that not a single one of my clients has ever been “perfect” on the program. Perfection rarely (if ever) happens and is just not necessary. What is necessary is focusing on progress over perfection and grace over guilt. Remember that and you’re already better off than most.

How have habits played a role in your success? Can you share some success habits that have helped you in your journey?

In my life it’s very clear that my habits drive me… Good and bad. I’m very much a creature of my habits. One habit of mine is going all in and just immersing myself in the things that I do. When I begin something, I’m very determined to not only see it through but to be the best that I possibly can be in it. Not that this is always a strength because oftentimes our strengths can be used as weaknesses. However, in business it has served me well. Before the internet and social media exploded I owned and operated one of the largest clinics in Pennsylvania. Over the last few years (due to the explosion of social media) we’ve been able to grow one of the largest and fastest growing natural health coaching groups in the country and we now have clients in all 50 states + the DC area. I think this came mostly from sports when I was younger, then into competitive bodybuilding. They both taught me the importance of creating specific goals and implementing strict regiments to accomplish those goals. That then translated into the business world.

Speaking in general, what is the best way to develop good habits? Conversely, how can one stop bad habits?

Understand that if you’ve been unsuccessful at developing better habits it’s probably because you’re giving the cheat meals, bad days, bad weeks, etc. too much attention and beating yourself up over it. You are not broken, you are not less than. We all struggle. Focus on what you want and move forward! Remember… Progress over perfection and grace over guilt!

Let’s talk about creating good habits in three areas, Wellness, Performance, and Focus. Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum wellness. Please share a story or example for each.

Well we know that cellular inflammation is at the root of virtually all health problems, right? We also know that our bodies need energy to do everything and that energy comes from the mitochondria in our cells. If you remember 6th grade science the mitochondria are what’s commonly referred to as “The energy factories of our cells”. Your brain needs energy to think, your organs need energy to do their various jobs, and we need energy to go all day. So the key to getting well, feeling well, and aging well is to live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle while maximizing the mitochondria!

My top wellness habit would definitely be to start reducing the toxic load that is driving the cellular inflammation which is killing us little by little. Start with an easy one like removing plastic containers. Then, when that’s done, remove another toxic product from your life and repeat. When my friend and business partner realized that his cells were the problem this was the very first step he had to start with. I’ll put it like this — If you break a bone, your body does what it’s best at and goes right to work repairing itself, but it won’t get very far if every couple days you do things that break it again. Our cells are broken and our body is trying to repair them but it can’t because we’re not removing what broke them in the first place. They need an environment conducive to healing. If you create that environment you’re well on your way to cellular healing, which is the key.

My top performance habit would be multi-pronged.

Better sleep habits. We’ve heard it all before but practicing it is a different story. Make the house a little cooler, keep your room black, get off of the phone, tablet, laptop and TV a few hours before you plan on sleeping. Additionally, I know this is a tough one for a lot of people, we have to stop eating like 2–3 hours before we go to bed, at least.

Better eating habits: Eat more nutrient dense foods. Vitamin C, magnesium, iron, selenium, B vitamins, and Vitamin E are all used in creating cellular energy. I also recommend to my clients that they start working in the habit of intermittent fasting and ultimately diet variation.

Last would be to move more. We sit too much. HIIT is my favorite type of workout but just moving in general. Go for a walk, swim, stretch, hike, etc.

As far as habits for focus go… it’s going to challenge people’s belief systems here but it’s imperative to start eating lots of healthy fats every day. We’ve been told that fat makes us fat but it’s just not true. Then we want to reduce our carb intake and increase our colorful vegetable intake as they are full of great brain boosting things like phytonutrients and antioxidants. Beyond that, it’s important to get moving and also adding in time to relax a little bit to de-stress.

Can you help explain some practices that can be used to develop those habits?

The best thing in my opinion is to create a plan and find someone to keep you accountable or hire someone who can create a plan for you and will hold you accountable. We can’t do anything if there isn’t a real plan and relying on willpower alone is not a plan. Once you have your plan and accountability/support you just take it one day at a time. Focus on progress over perfection and forgive yourself WHEN you slip up. One practice or technique you can use is something I learned from Brendon Burchard that he referred to as the doorframe technique I believe. Use the doorframe as a trigger to remind yourself to do X habit or to remind yourself that you’re on X journey. We walk through a lot of doors every day so we get lots of reminders. Therefore, we don’t drift back to old habits without even realizing.

Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimal performance at work or sport? Please share a story or example for each.

Take small breaks at work. This is another tip that I learned from Brendon Burchard. Work in 50 minute chunks and then take a 5–10 minute break to help refocus. Knowing that I only have 50 minutes before I break again pushes and motivates me to work hard and focus for those short time chunks.

As far as sports go, I think one of the best habits to practice is visualization. I read about a study a while ago where they took 2 sprinters and had one practice daily to improve their time and another they had only visualized. The one who visualized improved greater than the one practicing. Another test was done with basketball players where they had one practice of his foul shots and another only visualized and the same results occurred. The player that only visualized making his foul shots improved greater. That’s pretty wild.

Can you help explain some practices that can be used to develop those habits?

For implementing and sticking to taking breaks at work, I set an alarm to remind myself to get up and walk around for a few minutes. When you do this be careful not to keep thinking about what you were working on. Step away and relax. You can meditate or pray if you need to get your mind clear.

You can set any kind of triggers you like. Just set something in motion to remind you to do whatever it is you’re trying to make a habit. It doesn’t have to be an alarm and it doesn’t have to be a doorway. Wear a bracelet that reminds you to visualize. Many people like to say it takes 21 days to make a habit but that’s not entirely the case. It takes a minimum of 63 days for it to be a self sustaining habit. Meaning you won’t fall back to old ways when you stop reminding yourself to practice your new habit.

Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimal focus? Please share a story or example for each.

Optimal focus occurs when the brain is in optimal health. The health of the brain is determined by the health of the cells. The cells of the brain are damaged due to 3 main stressors — chemical stress, emotional stress, and physical stress. Most people aren’t experiencing repeated blows to the head and without healthy functioning cells it’s hard (sometimes impossible) to better handle the emotional stresses of life until our cells are fixed and all our feel good chemicals are flowing again. What we can control, to a large degree, right off the bat are the chemical stressors.

Habit 1: Replace bad/unhealthy fats (vegetable oil, canola oil, margarine) with good/healthy fats (avocado oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, ghee).

Habit 2: Work daily to reduce the amount of sugar consumed. So often when I say this a person’s response is that they don’t eat a lot of sugar not realizing that big food companies have hidden sugar in almost everything and then they give it a new name so we don’t catch it. Then there are other foods that we don’t realize breakdown into sugar like breads, pasta, and grains in general.

Habit 3: Avoid toxic chemicals like the plague. Pesticides, mercury, lead, PFOS and PFAS, etc. These chemicals are very harmful to the brain and the body as well. Once inside they wreak havoc and some are nearly impossible for the body to break down. That’s why they’re called “forever chemicals”. To get them out of the cells of the brain and body you have to go through a delicate process to remove them and it can be dangerous to do it alone, so always work with a professional who understands how to detox at a cellular level.

Can you help explain some practices that can be used to develop those habits?

To help our clients get off on the right foot we give them recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists. You can build these yourself or a really great resource is RealPlans.com. RealPlans is simple to use but also incredibly powerful. You can build custom recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists based on what suits you best. We’ve all heard “If you don’t plan, you plan to fail”. Well then, it would only make sense that we need a plan for our meals!

As a leader, you likely experience times when you are in a state of Flow. Flow has been described as a pleasurable mental state that occurs when you do something that you are skilled at, that is challenging, and that is meaningful. Can you share some ideas from your experience about how we can achieve a state of Flow more often in our lives?

For me it’s all about momentum. The hardest part is getting started. Once I get the ball rolling and I start experiencing little victories… I’m all in. I’m focused and then more wins come and then some more. When I’m in momentum, I feel like my whole life is a state of flow. I would start by writing out your ‘WHY’. Then ask yourself ‘why’? Why is that your ‘why’? Then ask yourself again… ‘Why’? The key is to keep getting deeper and deeper. Oftentimes, the first ‘why’ we come up with is very surface level.

Example: “I want to lose weight so I fit in my clothes better.”
Why? “I want them to fit better so I look better in my clothes.”

Why? “I want to look better in my clothes so that I feel better and confident about myself.”

Why? “I want to feel better about myself and confident to go out with my friends and just live my life.”

You get the point.

You can see how the real reason ‘WHY’ is much deeper and more meaningful. The deeper and more meaningful your ‘why’ the more motivation you have to get started. Then you get your momentum going and everything gets easier. Eating healthier gets easier. Achieving your goals becomes effortless and you feel accomplished and amazing.

Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Without a doubt, a Cellular Health Movement. I want to empower an army of men and women with the truth about health and wellness. Then give them the tools, tactics, and strategies they need to fix their cells to get well so that they can teach their loved ones how to do the same so that everyone is full of life, energy, and positivity to then go and make the world around them a much healthier and happier place.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

I would love to have a private breakfast with Brendon Burchard. He has made such an impact on my life and has helped me make a bigger impact in the world. He gives so much of his knowledge and information and he’s so infectious on video I can only imagine what it’s like to be around him in person.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

The best way to dive deep is to watch the training I put together on ColeClass.com. It’s all about how to fix the cell to get, feel, and ultimately, age well. The science is clear and what we are experiencing is not a normal part of aging. It’s very much abnormal aging but there is so much you can do to reverse a lot of the damage and slow down aging drastically. Other than that I have tons of videos with helpful tips and easy hacks on my facebook page (facebook.com/drbillcole).

Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.

This was a lot of fun. Thank you!