Episode 13
Talk to Your DNA: The LiveWello Story
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A family tragedy became a company that helps people understand their own bodies.
Florence Iwegbue was 28 when the call came that her mother had fallen into a coma. Years later, her own son had his first seizure, and she refused to bury a child. So she dropped everything and went looking for answers. What she built is LiveWello, a personal health platform that helps you talk to your DNA.
In this episode, Florence breaks down nutrigenomics and pharmacogenomics in plain English: why the same medication, meal or workout can work for one person and fail for another, and what your genetics can tell you about it. She shares the ancestral diet she credits for her own turnaround, the health battles she went through herself, and the tiny daily habits that keep her moving through perimenopause, fatigue and depression.
You'll learn:
Why personalised health starts with knowing your genetics, not guessing.
How diet and movement can look different when they follow your ancestry.
How to build a habit from the smallest possible step (she started by putting on workout clothes for 30 days).
What Gene Chat is and how you can ask your DNA why you can't sleep.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The seizure that changed everything
0:36 Meet Florence Iwegbue and LiveWello
1:32 Who Florence was before LiveWello
3:01 The call about her mother and the hardest decision
5:21 What LiveWello is and why she built it
8:54 How the platform turns your DNA into a personal plan
11:28 Yams, potatoes and why food is ancestral
14:49 The village trip: women living longer and looking better
15:15 Ugu and the 70% sub-Saharan diet
17:57 Her own health battles: fatigue, fibroids and depression
21:02 Running, weight gain and the cortisol gene
22:10 Meditation, breathwork and rebuilding her mornings
24:15 Baby steps: how to build a habit you actually keep
26:00 Gene Chat: ask your DNA anything
27:47 Privacy, anonymity and the data debate
28:15 Running LiveWello with her husband and the menopause hospital project
30:04 Building health tech at 50 as an African woman
31:15 Recognition, the BBC and Forbes, and why she doesn't hold on to it
32:45 Raising a son with autism and training like a sprinter
34:23 Where LiveWello is headed
35:04 If you're in your hardest chapter right now
36:40 Final thoughts
ABOUT FLORENCE IWEGBUE
Florence is the co-founder and lead of LiveWello, a personal health platform that blends genetic data, wellness and heritage-based practices. LiveWello won a Health Unity Award at Stanford for its use of generative AI in life sciences, and Florence has been featured by the BBC, ABC News and Forbes.
DISCLAIMER
This conversation is for information and inspiration only. It is not medical advice. Speak to your doctor or healthcare professional before changing your medication, diet or exercise.
#LiveWello #Genetics #WomensHealth #Longevity #Perimenopause #AlwaysOffTheRecord
CONNECT WITH FLORENCE IWEGBUE
Instagram: @livwello
Website: www.livewello.com
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- LiveWello
- Royal Free Hospital
- BBC
- ABC News
- Channel 4
- Forbes
- Stanford University
Transcript
It didn't resonate with me until probably five or six years later when our son, who she never met, had his first seizure.
Speaker A:Because I was not willing to bury a child, I dropped everything I was doing and started trying to figure out why it was that my mother had this disease.
Speaker A:Ah son was also prescribed the same medication that my mother was on when she passed on.
Speaker A:So my instinct told me that this was not a good idea.
Speaker B:Florence Iwegwe is the co founder and lead of LiveWellow, a personal health platform that helps people, in her own words, talk to their DNA.
Speaker B:It was a trip you made back to your village at home and you noticed that people were living longer.
Speaker A:Not only were they living longer, they were looking better.
Speaker A:So my question was, what is the connection between genetics, medication, lifestyle?
Speaker B:Hey, guys, if you're listening to this on YouTube, don't forget to click like and subscribe.
Speaker B:But if you're watching this or listening to this on Spotify, please leave a comment.
Speaker B:We'd like to know what you think about the show and about our wonderful guests.
Speaker B:Let's start with your name and where you were born because your heritage is woven into everything you've built.
Speaker B:Tell us who Florence was before.
Speaker B:Liveuelo.
Speaker A:I'm Mu Igbo.
Speaker A:So I'm an Igbo girl at heart.
Speaker A:I am from IMO State.
Speaker A:I'm also a dual US UK citizen, so I have a triple cultural blend in me.
Speaker A:I'm one of the older generations of people who have this as part of their background.
Speaker A:I have a couple of siblings.
Speaker A:I come from a smaller family considering and went on to have a small number of children too.
Speaker A:Three children.
Speaker A:Got married.
Speaker A:We've been married almost 30 years.
Speaker A:Wanted to be a lawyer.
Speaker A:I thought about doing things the right way.
Speaker A:I went on to have a good career.
Speaker A:My husband's a physician, a doctor.
Speaker A:And I guess everything was going right until my mother passed on.
Speaker A:I think her passing left a very remarkable scar on me and I like to talk about it because it is part of who I am.
Speaker A:Having her and losing her.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So live wellow.
Speaker B:Did it come from a boardroom?
Speaker B:It came from your own family.
Speaker B:Take us back the moment you realized something had to change.
Speaker A:Well, I was probably only about 28 years old when I got the call.
Speaker A:I was in New York City that my mom had fallen into a coma 10 years earlier.
Speaker A:What we now know is menopause.
Speaker A:My mom, or perimenopause.
Speaker A:My mom was 48 and she had her first seizure and she had been on a myriad of medications.
Speaker A:And we thought she had settled on the right one.
Speaker A:My mom was a midwife right here in London and she worked at Royal Free Hospital, and she was taking her medications religiously and maintaining her life as best as she could.
Speaker A: one day, one snowy January in: Speaker A:She finished work and was on her way home.
Speaker A:And she had a major seizure in the ambulance bay of Royal Free Hospital and went into coma.
Speaker A:And she essentially never came back.
Speaker A:I flew in from New York City, sat by her bedside, and I ultimately, as her oldest child, made the difficult decision of switching off her life support machine.
Speaker A:And that became the beginning of a nightmare.
Speaker A:I already had two daughters at that point, probably only about five and three.
Speaker A:And life became increasingly more difficult.
Speaker A:We actually were still in New York City during 9 11.
Speaker A:So it was one thing after the other.
Speaker A:And that was the first warning bell.
Speaker A:And it didn't resonate with me until probably five or six years later when our son, who she never met, had his first seizure.
Speaker B:I see.
Speaker B:So that became.
Speaker B:That is kind of what shaped your mission into what you do at Live Wellow and everything.
Speaker B:And, you know, it was just so fascinating.
Speaker B:So what I wanted to know is if I was hearing about Live Wellow today for the first time, what is it?
Speaker B:And what does it do for me?
Speaker B:What would it do for me if.
Speaker A:I was so initially, because I was not willing to bury a child, I dropped everything I was doing and started trying to figure out why it was that my mother had this disease.
Speaker A:Her children never had the disease, but then her grandson went on to have the disease, not as an adult, but as a child.
Speaker A:So this opened up a world of multiple caregivers.
Speaker A:So Live well started off as a platform to support people, primary caregivers of anyone with a chronic health issue, any.
Speaker A:And to help them organize the lab results, tests, therapies, appointments, and aggregate it.
Speaker A:But then as I did research, Live Wello grew with the research and the needs of our son's health issues.
Speaker A:And one of those needs were that we did not want him to spend the life hooked on the shackles of epilepsy, because I had seen it happen and end terribly.
Speaker A:So we, we went into the world of nutrigenomics, which was changing one's lifestyle to switch off any genes that can cause or lead to disease.
Speaker A:And how does that happen?
Speaker A:Lifestyle changes.
Speaker A:And how do lifestyle changes occur?
Speaker A:Looking at the people who brought you here, for every average person, it took 10,000 people doing the right things in their bloodline to for them to be alive today.
Speaker A:And I needed to know what it was I could mimic in my son's ancestry to start to reverse any chronic issues that he had.
Speaker A:But in that process, our son was also prescribed the same medication that my mother was on when she passed on.
Speaker A:So my instinct told me that this was not a good idea.
Speaker A:So it opened up the world of pharmacogenomics, medications that work well for some, but do not work well for others.
Speaker A:So he was on the medication and he was also still having seizures.
Speaker A:So my question was, what is the connection between genetics, medication, lifestyle, and.
Speaker A:So when you think of LiveWello, think of LiveWellow as a platform that helps you make the connection with regards to any chronic health issue or symptoms that you are experiencing.
Speaker A:And I think.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think you answered all my questions.
Speaker B:I had so many things I wanted to ask you about.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But one thing I want to ask you is if you.
Speaker B:Let's keep.
Speaker B:Let's say you give me a real life example, someone who uses Live Wello.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And makes a different decision about their health.
Speaker B:You know, how do they do it?
Speaker B:Like, how does the platform work and how does it facilitate that?
Speaker B:Because so much of the information today is hidden by doctors and labs and people.
Speaker B:Obviously, it's easier now because people have AI so they can at least decipher some of it themselves, because I can even decipher blood test results.
Speaker B:But in general, you know, if someone, if a user went on to Live Weller and wanted to use the platform, how does it put it all together?
Speaker A:Well, well, first of all, our platform does not replace the position of a doctor, health coach or naturopath or integrative healthcare practitioner, or any specialist in medicine.
Speaker A:What we do is pull all of that stuff together on our platform.
Speaker A:So, first of all, I'm of the belief that medicine today needs to be personalized.
Speaker A:Even if I had a sister with the very same health condition that I have, the way our bodies will address it, the way our bodies will show symptoms, the medications we need, the supplements we need, the way we need to eat and move is completely different.
Speaker A:This was the most insightful information I learned through my son.
Speaker A:And so what we do is we test you.
Speaker A:You can go on our platform.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You get the saliva test.
Speaker A:And a lot of the genes that we test in our panel are related to the most common chronic health issues.
Speaker A:Right now we have gotten to a point where in the US and in the uk we have hit the bar in terms of what the healthcare system can do for a lot of people with Chronic health issues.
Speaker A:So that's where I was, and that was how I chose to address my son's health issue.
Speaker A:And by doing that, you have to understand what are the good things that my body is capable of and what are the deficiencies in my body.
Speaker A:The genetics tells you this.
Speaker A:So what we do is help you amplify the good things that are happening in your body so that over time, you shut down the bad things that are happening.
Speaker A:So it's not.
Speaker A:You can't think of it as a direct cure all.
Speaker A:Think of it as amplifying the conservative nature of the body.
Speaker A:The body is very conservative at the moment.
Speaker A:Even if you have a chronic health issue that you're still suffering from, it is literally dealing with other issues in your body that are more important, that are keeping you alive.
Speaker A:What you want to do is to support the body in dealing with the little things so that it can maximize its ability to deal with the tougher things.
Speaker A:So think of lifestyle change as a way of supporting your body as opposed to as just a way of living.
Speaker A:So I hope I was able to address that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And one of the things I did notice, because I was, whilst I was doing research was.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think I read somewhere, I watched on a podcast.
Speaker B:You were?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:About how you also change your son's diet.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And how much diet can affect one's health.
Speaker B:But it wasn't only what I found fascinating about that was I remember reading about how even the sugars, you change the type of sugar, like if it was something to do with the African yam, like, his health was better having African yam rather than potatoes.
Speaker B:Potatoes, yes.
Speaker A:Yes, ma'.
Speaker A:Am.
Speaker A:You did your research.
Speaker B:I did my research, girl, yeah.
Speaker A:So for Sub Saharan bodies in general, we do better with complex carbohydrates.
Speaker A:Complex carbohydrates are mostly carbohydrates that.
Speaker A:That grow deep in the ground.
Speaker A:And a lot of these carbohydrates go deeper in the ground than on average.
Speaker A:So cassava, you have yams, the big tuber yams that we have in.
Speaker A:In Africa, their sugars, the.
Speaker A:The energy it takes for the body to break down the.
Speaker A:Those complex carbohydrates, not only actually feeds our body, our body's need to be able to go through that process, but when you feed the body simple sugars, it's a deficiency.
Speaker A:You don't get to give your body the workout it needs, and then it sits in the system and starts to affect a lot of the glycemic index index in our body.
Speaker A:And for Some reason I cannot explain it.
Speaker A:A lot of Sub Saharans react very sensitively to simple sugars.
Speaker A:And when you're young, as I was, you don't really notice it because the body is so efficient.
Speaker A:It's when you start to get older that you start to notice.
Speaker A:And that's when you start to hear about the people with the blood pressures.
Speaker A:You start to hear about the type 2 diabetes.
Speaker A:You start to hear about the kidney problems.
Speaker A:It never happens when you're young, it always happens when you're older because your body has done a lot of heavy lifting in youth.
Speaker A:So people look at themselves and they think, oh, I'm fine, everything's going well, because they're doing the wrong things.
Speaker A:But you have to understand that it's all about a ticking clock, and it's all about the deposits you're making and the withdrawals you're making from your body.
Speaker A:Think of it that way as a ledger.
Speaker A:So if you're making more positive deposits in your body over a long course of time, you stand to benefit in the future.
Speaker A:However, if you are hitting your body hard, when you start to get to your late 30s and 40s, you start to feel it, you start to see it.
Speaker A:For those of us, sadly, like myself, who started to lose friends at that age, those were my warning bells, certainly to change my attitude.
Speaker A:And just so you know, Amanda, even though I had this software and I knew all of this stuff, I wasn't exactly following the rules for my own body.
Speaker A:I did it efficiently for my son, but the ability to do it for myself was a whole different story.
Speaker A:So I want to put that out there, that it took even harder lessons for me, despite losing my mom, for me to start paying attention to myself.
Speaker B:Yeah, I find that very profound because, you know, a lot of times we know the things that we should be doing health wise, and we don't do it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But what I even found more profound is, you know, again, during my research, one of the things that triggered you to start thinking about this was a trip you made back to your village at home, and you noticed that people were living longer.
Speaker A:Yeah, they were living that.
Speaker B:And didn't have as sophisticated healthcare.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:And not only were they living longer, they were looking better.
Speaker A:They were not having a lot of the, you know, at that point I was in perimenopause, although we were not having a lot of the perimenopause symptoms.
Speaker A:You know, my kids were mist women in their 70s and thinking they were my age.
Speaker A:And these women were complaining and they were saying oh, we're poor.
Speaker A:We don't have this.
Speaker A:I was like, you have no idea how rich you are.
Speaker A:Because first of all, you do not look like your counterparts like us in the West.
Speaker A:So we may have more money in our pocket financially, but we don't have the wisdom you have.
Speaker A:Your wisdom is that you are eating well and you are moving well.
Speaker A:And this were the two primary lessons I learned going back to take care of my father, was that these women were moving and they were eating well and they were laughing.
Speaker A:There was joy in the most simple things.
Speaker A:And I was at a very difficult point in my life when perimenopause hit.
Speaker A:And I realized that that trifecta was something I needed to incorporate, just like I did for my son.
Speaker A:And one of the first things I started doing was paying a closer look at our diet.
Speaker A:I realize now that high chlorophyll vegetables are what fed me genetically better because our body processes it much better.
Speaker A:We have a vegetable in Nigeria.
Speaker A:It's called.
Speaker A:It's a fluted pumpkin, but we call it ugu.
Speaker A:Ugu.
Speaker A:And a lot of people don't realize that ugu is one of the deep green vegetables, one of the few deep green vegetables in, in Africa that also has protein in it.
Speaker A:So you're eating a vegetable with a high protein content, a higher protein content than kale.
Speaker A:And so this is a rich, rich vegetable.
Speaker A:So if you're sub Saharan African, this should be cycling through your diet two, three, four times a week at least.
Speaker A:So when I tell people, because I don't want anybody to catch me out there, you know, eating, you know, croissant and hold me to it, I eat a 70% sub Saharan D diet.
Speaker A:So most of my diet is Sub Saharan breakfast, lunch, dinner, you know, and then even my snacks.
Speaker A:So, you know, yesterday I was in Brixton, I was getting some mangoes and sugarcane.
Speaker A:So I will eat sugarcane.
Speaker A:I don't juice it.
Speaker A:I eat it completely because I know that some of the fibers of the sugarcane goes into my body, and my body needs to consume that fiber in order to support the sugar levels that I'm taking in.
Speaker B:When you say diet, then would we say dieter hereditary?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Diet is an ancestral component of living.
Speaker A:Well, I think for us as Sub Saharan women who live in diaspora, it is probably one of the most important things we should do.
Speaker A:It is on par with movement.
Speaker A:I didn't realize this, but the Sub Saharan physiology, especially our bones, a lot of the feel good chemicals, we don't.
Speaker A:We don't only benefit from the ones that come from the brain.
Speaker A:You can generate those feel good chemicals in your joints.
Speaker A:And the only way to do that is for impact.
Speaker A:So there has to be joint impact in your plethora of movement.
Speaker A:So today, unfortunately, you know, you know, my generation of Nigerians, we were forced into doing desk job, doctor, lawyer, accountant, unfortunately, that's killing us.
Speaker A:So those women I saw in the village, they were farmers.
Speaker A:They were clocking 21,000 steps a day.
Speaker A:There was a lot of movement, there was a lot of sun, there was a lot of interaction.
Speaker A:So you gotta think about movement and make peace with it.
Speaker A:Like I had to, I was a couch potato and I had to make peace with the fact that movement was one of the most important things I needed to do to rescue myself.
Speaker A:I mean, I don't know if you knew this, of course, my medical records are not in public, but I did have fibromyalg.
Speaker A:I had chronic fatigue syndrome.
Speaker A:I was bed bound for two years and then I went on to have 11 uterine fibroids, pretty large ones.
Speaker A:And a lot of my friends whom I went to school with were battling the same issue.
Speaker A:And a lot of them were doing surgeries and repeating those surgeries and eventually taking their, you know, having hysterectomies.
Speaker A:And I chose not to go down that path.
Speaker A:I needed to understand what I could do to not have to do that.
Speaker A:And it evolved a lot of discipline, not just with my diet, but with movement and with my mind.
Speaker A:So I had major depressive disorder, mdd, and I did not respond well to medication.
Speaker A:And only with research in my genetic testing that I found out that the benefit of a sub Saharan woman, mostly like myself, or my genetic composition, was to look to vitamin A as a source of, a major source of my, you know, the oil, omega 3 and oils in my diet.
Speaker A:So I eat a lot of oily fish and carrots are a huge proportion of, of, of my diet.
Speaker A:I juice it, I, I eat it as well.
Speaker A:So, you know, this is how I deal with my depression.
Speaker B:But it's very interesting what you're saying, because I think this applies not only to sub Saharan women or men, it applies to every race.
Speaker A:Yes, it does so.
Speaker B:Because basically the same thing can apply across races.
Speaker B:So I guess if everyone gets genetically tested, yes, they would know what type of diet suits them best.
Speaker B:I guess movement is a common denominator across.
Speaker B:Because I think we all have to move.
Speaker B:Exercise.
Speaker A:Yeah, but we move differently and at different points in our life.
Speaker A:So when perimenopause started for me, I, I was Running.
Speaker A:I was running like a beast because I was now 108 kilos, that's probably 214.
Speaker A:I'm gonna give you a picture.
Speaker A:You're gonna see it.
Speaker A:214, 16 Pounds.
Speaker A:And I thought, and I was told that if you eat well and you run, you should be fine.
Speaker A:Well, I was running and it wasn't sufficient.
Speaker A:I wasn't losing any weight.
Speaker A:I wasn't doing anything.
Speaker A:And it was cortisol.
Speaker A:My genetic ability to flush cortisol from my body was impacted at that point in perimenopause.
Speaker A:And it was.
Speaker A:It was just a mutation that I had.
Speaker A:People like me just do not flush cortisol easily.
Speaker B:So I had you find this.
Speaker B:Sorry to cut you.
Speaker B:Did you find this out from the genetic test?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:From the genetic test, yeah.
Speaker B:So if you're at home and you're watching this.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Florence found out about the cortisol situation from a genetic testing, which is why it's important to get these genetic tests done, because then you find out what the core issue may be.
Speaker A:Yes, it really is.
Speaker A:And cortisol, you know, not just in terms of the cortisol, but also in terms of my motivation to exercise.
Speaker A:There are genetic, the actual genes associated with people having lower motivation for exercise.
Speaker A:And I had that, you know, I had a zinger of a package of genes working against me.
Speaker A:And what I had to do was focus on mind.
Speaker A:So I went into intermittent hypoxia breathing.
Speaker A:I went into meditation.
Speaker A: I started in: Speaker A:So I will not get out of bed unless I've meditated.
Speaker A:And my meditation is a diet.
Speaker A:I do intermittent hypoxia breathing and then I do regular is intermediate hypoxic breathing.
Speaker B:Kind of what the.
Speaker B:What's that guy called?
Speaker B:Oh, God.
Speaker B:There's a name for it.
Speaker B:There's a.
Speaker A:The Wim Hof.
Speaker B:The Wim Hof.
Speaker A:It is similar to Wim Hof.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's similar, yes.
Speaker A:So great guy, but, you know, he's a Nordic guy and, you know, maybe the breathing is as much as I have in common with him.
Speaker A:I do not do ice baths and I do not do extreme heat, mostly again, because of hormonal fluctuations.
Speaker A:As a woman, as a Sub Saharan woman, I cannot expose myself to ice cold temperatures.
Speaker A:The best thing I can do for myself so I do not raise a lot of negative hormones in my body.
Speaker A:The best thing I can do for myself is to practice meditation, deep breathing, calm meditation and positive affirmations.
Speaker A:So I always say three nice things about myself while I'm brushing my teeth to myself.
Speaker A:I force myself to do it.
Speaker B:It's a difficult.
Speaker B:Positive affirmations are so important because I had a guest, the last guest, the communication expert, she was talking about that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And about how we speak so negatively to ourselves sometimes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Talk to yourself like you talk to your best friend.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's so important to talk to ourselves.
Speaker B:Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, there's so much that your app does and everything.
Speaker B:And I want to go into.
Speaker A:We do.
Speaker A:We do also, you know, I know that I hate to cut you off.
Speaker A:I know I talked about the fact that I. I had genes working against me in terms of discipline.
Speaker A:Just sticking to the plan.
Speaker A:We have a wellness component in our software that allows you to set goals.
Speaker A:And you set goals based on what you want, not just your health condition, but what you want.
Speaker A:And with those goals, you get reminders so that they help you stay accountable and they help you do things slowly.
Speaker A:And we will help you by saying, following through a myriad of questions that you answer so that you set those goals in a way that they are achievable.
Speaker A:And that's how I got my.
Speaker A:So the idea is not just exercise.
Speaker A:You build the habit of exercise.
Speaker A:So I tell people, do not.
Speaker A:It's not about exercising.
Speaker A:It's about showing up.
Speaker A:So the act of showing up to the gym, to the class, is what your goal should be.
Speaker A:It shouldn't be what you do when you get there.
Speaker A:It's the act of.
Speaker A:I started with learning how to wear workout clothes.
Speaker A:Clothes.
Speaker A:So learning how to put on clothes every day.
Speaker A:I did that for 30 days just to put leggings on and a T shirt on and, you know, a sports bra.
Speaker A:And I learned to do that.
Speaker A:I taught myself that for 30 days.
Speaker A:The first time I meditated, I did it for 60 seconds.
Speaker A:So everything has to be done slowly and consistently.
Speaker B:That's very important.
Speaker B:Consistency.
Speaker B:Yeah, Consistency is key to a lot of things.
Speaker B:Everything in our lives.
Speaker B:And self discipline.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And sometimes you don't have to dive into it.
Speaker B:You can just start with baby steps, which is what Flora is saying.
Speaker A:Yeah, baby steps.
Speaker B:Baby baby steps.
Speaker B:And, you know, you kind of see the cumulative effect over time.
Speaker A:I mean, when people get the gene test.
Speaker A:I'm not asking you to do anything.
Speaker A:Just have a conversation with your genetics because, you know, we were.
Speaker A:We won a Health Unity award at Stanford University a few years ago because we were the first software that allows you to interact with your genetics.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We in.
Speaker A:When you upload your test results.
Speaker A:You can start to ask it questions like why do I have problems sleeping?
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker B:So you can actually ask.
Speaker B:Oh my God, that's such an amazing part of your software.
Speaker B:So not only do you get the results.
Speaker B:Yes, you can start asking.
Speaker A:It's a feature we call Gene Chat.
Speaker B:Genechat.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it's a conversation you have with your own genetics.
Speaker A:We also allow there's privacy is huge.
Speaker A:You can even anonymize your account so that you know, you're completely, you know, anonymous.
Speaker A:But then you have this conversation.
Speaker A:Why do I not sleep well?
Speaker A:These are the supplements I'm on.
Speaker A:This is how often I go to the gym.
Speaker A:I like this is what I do in the gym.
Speaker A:It remembers everything you tell it and, and no information is too much.
Speaker A:You mention it all.
Speaker A:I drink tap water as opposed to this I live in.
Speaker B:Oh God, I'm going to be signing up for that.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I live in West London.
Speaker A:West London.
Speaker A:It pulls, it helps you aggregates because in.
Speaker A:In the city of Westminster what's their water quality like for you to be drinking?
Speaker A:Should you consider it a filter?
Speaker B:And I guess with the AI you can aggregate all this information.
Speaker B:So if someone else in another in this that lives, for example, I live, let's say I live in Westminster and you have six people that live in Westminster that all have the same issue.
Speaker B:It can start aggregating and getting all that information together, thinking wait a minute, all these people live in Westminster and they've all got swollen ankles.
Speaker B:Maybe there's something in the water in Westminster.
Speaker B:You see?
Speaker B:You see what I'm trying we can start connecting the dots.
Speaker A:Well yeah, but we do not put.
Speaker A:Because we try to maintain a lot of privacy.
Speaker A:So we do not aggregate the information.
Speaker B:But I think you should aggregate it.
Speaker B:As long as it's not the personal data of the person could just be.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Well, what you could ask is do people in Westminster have issues like.
Speaker A:So that's how you would interact with the software.
Speaker B:So let's go bit into the company now.
Speaker B:You co founded this with your husband.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Who's a physician.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And a self taught developer.
Speaker B:Yes, yes, I know, I love that.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:What does your role as a lead in the company look like day to day?
Speaker A:Day to day.
Speaker A:I am talking to people who want to use our software in customizing a lot of the services they provide.
Speaker A:You have your fitness trainers, you have your integrative healthcare practitioners, you have your primary care doctors.
Speaker A:Doctors who want to speed up the results from their patients.
Speaker A:I give talks to groups like that.
Speaker A:I give talks to nutritionist organizations, I give talks to nurses.
Speaker A:I teach them how to use the software and how it will work for them specifically.
Speaker A:So that's my average day.
Speaker A:My average day is I hit the gym, I'm done with the gym, and I get my appointment calendar and then I start doing my talks.
Speaker A:Either they're webinars or they're live.
Speaker A:And so every day it involves conversations with people and conversations with our tech team with regards to customizing the software for certain groups because groups have needs that are not what we have overtly on the software.
Speaker A:So we customize it.
Speaker A:Right now we're trying to work with a hospital that is trying to offer a high level of services to its menopause patients.
Speaker A:Obgyn.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they, the patients are complaining because they are not getting a lot of the results from HRT like they should be.
Speaker A:Well, some people react to HRT differently based on genetic composition.
Speaker A:And now the answers are being answered.
Speaker A:And you know, they're starting to customize and personalize a lot of the advice that they've given to people based on their genetics.
Speaker B:So I guess building a health tech as an African woman in the grand, a caregiver and a non engineer is a different mountain entirely.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:It's a different world.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:And managing my own health, by the way, at a point in life, 50, 52 almost.
Speaker A:And a point in life when society says I should be a little bit invisible.
Speaker A:And I have three children, I'm raising two young women.
Speaker B:50 Is the new 35.
Speaker A:I sure hope so for you.
Speaker A:Lips to God's ears.
Speaker A:From your lips to God's ears.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You sure look 35.
Speaker A:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker A:I'm going to take that.
Speaker A:I'm going to take that.
Speaker A:But it's mothering.
Speaker A:It is innovation.
Speaker A:Innovation has always been a part of my personality.
Speaker A:I've never looked at things like the average person.
Speaker A:I've always thought about ways to make things better.
Speaker A:And the software today, in a year's time when we have this conversation, it's going to be different, it's going to be better, it's going to be fulfilling.
Speaker A:I want people who use what we do to smile every time and be impressed by what it's able to do.
Speaker A:When we get tech support questions and we tell people, oh, you know, you could do this, they're always so happy to hear it.
Speaker A:And yeah, and this is.
Speaker A:And I would like a lot of people to kind of reach out to us.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:I Love it.
Speaker B:Now, let's talk about, you know, you've been on the BBC, ABC News, Channel 4, you've been named Forbes Power Woman in Africa.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, when you zoom out from the late nights.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:What does the recognition mean to you?
Speaker A:See, now that's such a personal question.
Speaker B:Because,.
Speaker A:God rest her soul, my mom, the way we were raised, you cannot hang on to stuff like that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's when you start to fall off the cliff.
Speaker A:If you start to pay attention to stuff like that, what you want to do is continue to do the work that matters.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Because if we, if I hung on to that, I wouldn't have gone into AI development.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I would have just kind of thought about coasting on that.
Speaker A:But you gotta constantly improve yourself in this day and age.
Speaker A:If you don't, you'll find yourself just sitting on the sidewalks.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You wanna be judged on the future, not the past.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:So you turn mindset and momentum into the fuel that drives you every day.
Speaker A:Yes, yes.
Speaker B:And grief and exhaustion into a company you built.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:It's kind of like when I'm in the gym and I'm working out because I do kickboxing.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I love you.
Speaker B:I love that for me, I love that for everybody watching, you know, don't give up on yourself.
Speaker B:Never give up on yourself.
Speaker A:And there's a humbling part too, having a child that lives with autism.
Speaker A:My son is 19, he's 6 foot 5, very lanky, and an extremely fast runner.
Speaker A:And if he sees a bird or a little doggy that he likes, he will just kind of dart after it.
Speaker A:And people don't realize that.
Speaker A:He was my motivator for not only getting fit, but on working specifically on my plyometrics, my ability to go from zero to a hundred explosively.
Speaker A:So, you know, I had to.
Speaker A:That's very humbling.
Speaker A:I had to set a goal as a 40 something year old woman that I needed to be as fast as Shakara Jackson.
Speaker A:So she became an inspiration for me.
Speaker A:She.
Speaker A:For goodness sake, she's my daughter's age.
Speaker A:My daughter's age.
Speaker A:Let's be real.
Speaker B:What I like most about it is you've taken control of your life.
Speaker B:Life in every way.
Speaker B:You've taken control of your life, your health, your mindset, and also your genetics.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:You know what's going on, you know, under the hood.
Speaker B:You can lift that hood up and say, what is going on in my body?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Right to the microcosm.
Speaker A:When I don't want to meditate in the morning, I'm like, okay, see, now that's your genetics trying to betray you.
Speaker B:Stick to the plan.
Speaker A:Stick to the plan.
Speaker A:And that's what I try to do.
Speaker A:And when I don't want to work on my plyometrics and my speed because it's so difficult for a woman my age, I think about my son, and then I think about how important it is to keep him safe and happy and how it reduces my anxiety because I'm now confident about my speed.
Speaker A:And I go get it.
Speaker A:And that's all we need to do.
Speaker A:Go get it.
Speaker B:If I ask you, where is Liv Weller headed to next?
Speaker B:What's the vision?
Speaker A:Oh, the vision is that 13 years ago, when we started knowledge about personalized medicine, knowledge about the methylation pathway and how people could maximize the bedrock of their existence was nothing.
Speaker A:Nowadays, it's all over the place.
Speaker A:And right now, I just want people to know that we're out there.
Speaker A:We've been out there.
Speaker A:We've been waiting for you.
Speaker A:We've been waiting for you to understand.
Speaker A:Understand that we could help you.
Speaker A:And now I want to meet you.
Speaker A:You know?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:Come on, let's get this going.
Speaker A:You know?
Speaker B:Totally agree.
Speaker B:I mean, I don't see any downside to knowing what's going on under the hood.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, I find the whole thing so inspirational and how you turned everything around.
Speaker B:If someone was listening and is in the middle of their own hardest chapter right now.
Speaker B:A diagnosis, a loss, a wall they can't see over, what would you tell them about what's waiting for them on the other side?
Speaker A:I'll tell them to read about Bruce Lipton's book.
Speaker A:Bruce Lipton's book talks about how you can talk your mind and your body into recovery.
Speaker A:There is no such thing as a sentence, a medical sentence.
Speaker A:There is no such thing.
Speaker A:I will tell them that there are answers out there.
Speaker A:You just have to want it.
Speaker A:And you have to want it bad enough.
Speaker A:And that's the difference between the people walking the streets, healthy and happy, and the people that are not.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:You've got to really, really want it.
Speaker A:And I know that sounds condescending.
Speaker A:This was difficult for me to.
Speaker B:You've got to really, really want it.
Speaker A:You've got to want it.
Speaker A:The moment you want it, it is yours.
Speaker A:So now what we gotta do to get it?
Speaker A:It?
Speaker B:Yeah, you just.
Speaker A:What do we have to do to get it?
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:And then you just get going.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, I'm enjoying this conversation so much.
Speaker B:It's like, every time I'm on this show, I've got all these inspirational people, and I just live leave the show feeling so, you know, pumped up.
Speaker B:I just want to thank you for your honesty, your heart, and for showing us what it looks like to take the very worst thing that's ever happened to you and turn it into something that heals other people.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Amen to that.
Speaker B:I'm home blessed.
Speaker B:This is so amazing.
Speaker B:And if you're listening out there, I mean, God, I mean, you should take, you know, an example from Florence right here.
Speaker B:I thank you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker A:You know, I appreciate your presence, and I'm humbled by your invitation.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:If you take one thing from today, let it be this.
Speaker B:The thing that's breaking you might just be the thing that's building you.
Speaker B:Florence took a family tragedy and built a company that helps people all over the world understand their own bodies and live longer.
Speaker B:And she did it as a mother, an immigrant, and a woman who refused to be told what she couldn't do.
Speaker B:Go check out Live Wello.
Speaker B:Look after your health like the wealth it is, and come back to it again and again because that's where the real momentum lives.
Speaker B:If this episode moved, you, share it with a woman who needs to hear it.
Speaker B:Subscribe so you never miss one, and we'll see you next time.
Speaker B:Until then, keep your money smart, your mindset strong, and your momentum unstoppable.
