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The Healthy Project Podcast is your go-to source for thought-provoking conversations on health equity, public health, and social determinants of health. Hosted by Corey Dion Lewis, each episode explores the intersection of community health, policy, and innovation, offering insights from experts and changemakers who are leading the charge in creating healthier, more equitable communities. Whether you're a healthcare professional, public health advocate, or simply passionate about making a difference, this podcast equips you with the knowledge and inspiration to drive meaningful change. Join us on the journey to build a healthier, more just world—one conversation at a time.
00:00
Hello everybody, thank you for listening to the Healthy Project podcast, My City, My Health edition. I'm your boy Corey Dion Lewis, and I have a very special guest with me today. No stranger to me or the space they're gonna be talking about. Being out here training, getting people in shape, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Also on our Health Equity at Work panel at this year's My City, My Health camp.
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conference. Conference? I have, I don't know what you want me to call you Ninja P, you want me to call you Paul? What do you go by? I go by four different aliases. That's what I'm saying. I don't know what I need to say. Well, Lord, I actually go by four aliases. My real name, so my real name, right, is Paula Bell, but I also go by Ninja P in the fitness world. So we're going to keep it at Ninja P. Ninja P? Yes, Ninja P. I love it. Ninja P.
00:59
Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Yes. So before we get into our conversation today, tell the people a little bit about yourself and what's your mission. Sure. So my name is Paula Bell. I am originally from Brooklyn, New York. My family is from Barbados. So I rep New York and Barbados hard. I love that culture. I have been in Iowa since 2006 for, so for some time now. I do have twins. I gotta mention my twins. I have a twin.
01:29
who are about to be 21 in January at the time of this recording. Wow. So, yes, they are growing up, they're living life, they're doing their thing. My mission is to, my mission and my brand, is to inspire, motivate, and encourage others to achieve their personal and professional goals to live a fulfilling life, walking in their purpose. That's my mission and brand statement. I love it. I love it. And, um...
01:57
I was gonna try to be, you know, tell you mine, but now I forgot everything I wrote down. Yeah. Just... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
02:06
Okay, that's cool. Well, I've like, I want to let the teacher know that I learned something. Right, right. Now I'm like, what did I say? It was good too, I want you to know it was really good. I believe it. It is good. Yes. And I was, it was great. And you're walking in it. And I'm walking in it. Okay, that's all that matters. You know, one of the great reasons why I love that you're on this panel specifically, I know you do a lot of business consulting. I do. You've been in a lot of different
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I can only assume I have and um and I will I would love your viewpoint, especially with your health and wellness background Your business acumen where do you see or kind of talk to me about where you see the disconnect between the company and Maybe how I don't want to say how they treat their employees, but that's just the first thing that comes in mind But where they can make improvements when it comes to health equity
03:06
making things more equitable. So yeah, so you are correct. I've worked in many different industries and I've worked in corporate for over 20 plus years. I am not in corporate now. I do own my own business and I also do consulting and work for a non-profit as well. So I've seen a lot of different things but let's just stick with corporate for right now. So when I was in corporate, I had the opportunity to climb high on the corporate ladder. So I went from what you would
03:35
person up to a senior level manager. And what I realized as I was leading people, more so than when I was just an individual contributor, is there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of anxiety, there is a lot of depression. There are a lot of things that as a leader, not only are you working with the person to do their professional goals and do their work, right? But you have to treat them like a person. And I think sometimes that's forgotten.
04:05
people are treated as a number. So what happens when you're treated as a number, you're not looked at holistically. So when you are working 80 hour weeks, nonstop for months on hand, and you're not getting a break to breathe, you're not getting a break to do some self care, what's happening is you're gonna drive that productivity down, because a person can only work at that level for so long. Nobody's a Superman, nobody's a superwoman,
04:35
only work at that pace for so long. So what I do think can be done better is allowing employees benefits on taking care of self. However that might be for them. Some people is working out, some people is meditation and yoga. There's many different ways that people take care of themselves but if you want to continue to see the productivity that you initially see from an employee you have to look at them holistically. And I don't think
05:05
that's done. It's you're coming in here, you're coming in here to work, we got to hit this bottom line. And unfortunately what happens is if you have great high-performing employees that are working themselves into the ground, that are now on medication, that are now sick all the time, that are now losing weight, that are now depressed, that all of those things happen, then that productivity is going to go down. So why not just invest throughout to keep that
05:35
Optimally and still have to benefit of working for a company who doesn't just look at them as a number but as a human being Yeah, that's real. I love
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that you said, I love the words holistically in various ways of treating someone's health and wellbeing. Because when I was in the corporate wellness space a long, long time ago, when you thought about corporate wellness or improving productivity, it was either gym membership or health coaching, something like that. Well, like you said, not everybody, there are many different ways to treat somebody's wellbeing.
06:14
is you see that, oh, you look at the statistics of whatever, it's like, oh, well, this isn't working because nobody's doing it. Well, it's not everybody. Nobody cares about going to the gym or whatever the case may be. Off the top of your head, what are some other ways outside of physical fitness, which I still think is a...
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hands down one of the best things you can do for your health and well-being. But what are some other ways companies can introduce more of a holistic programming that will provide for all, not just a segment of people? My body and soul is how I look at it, right? Those are the components that we're made up of. Mental illness is real. And having access to resources at maybe even a reduced rate where the company's actually
07:08
into dollars to where, because not every employee has the same financial status, right, but they need help, they need those resources. And I just can't believe that there aren't organizations and companies that can't work together to partner, because everybody can see that we have a mental illness issue. And it's only going to continue to be worse if we don't do
07:38
Right? So I'm all about working with people's mindset. That's one part of health and wellness. Because honestly, what I found is if you don't get the mind right, it's gonna be hard for people to be consistent with the physical aspect. So an example I'll give is I'm a black belt in karate.
08:04
But the first thing I learned when I was in karate was mindset. I learned the tenets. I learned the principles. I learned why you train. My idea of karate was you come in there and you learn the physical aspect of it. But if your mental isn't right, you can take what you learn physically and use it for the wrong reasons.
08:26
You don't want to do that, right? So I do believe there's opportunity to where you can offer things to employees that are easily accessible to them. So mental illness may not be, I need a therapist.
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mental illness may be I need to see a doctor because I need help maintaining X, Y, and Z. So if you offer resources in that space to where people can have access to people they can talk to and figure out what they need to do and where they need to go, that would be great. Sometimes you just need counseling. I just don't know what I need to do. I just know something is off and having resources for that. So you have counselors, you have therapists, you have coaches like myself.
09:14
There's many different aspects that can help with any sort of mental challenges that you might be having. And then there's the physical. You have people who are hardcore that like, and this is not me, you are probably not going to see me in a CrossFit ever. Ever. That is not my thing. You're not going to see me on no stage bodybuilding. No.
09:37
That's not my thing, but you have people who love that sort of thing. You like it, I love it. Exactly. You go ahead, I'll be there to support you. I will clap, I will take your pictures, I'll do whatever. I just won't be on that stage with you, right? So I mean, there's different aspects of physical fitness that you can offer instead of just gym memberships. Why don't you go out into your communities and where your employees are and find out what are some of the resources out there and opportunities out there that people are interested
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because it might be different for each region too, depending on where you live, right? So it's gonna take some deliberate research and work, but I think there's people who like the physical aspect. There are people who just like to be, who just like to Zen, who might just like to be by themselves, a little bit more introverted. They might like meditation or again, yoga, where they may not wanna be around a lot of people. Let's find resources for them too. Let's find resources for those people who don't like to be in groups.
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don't come to my fitness classes, now I'm a high cardio fitness class right, some people don't come this is what's interesting to me, some people won't come because they don't want to they don't want people to see them mess up, right, they don't want to be in that crowd so they're embarrassed, they're fearful, they don't want to be judged.
10:57
Right? So they would rather do it online or virtual versus come into a room. You will probably not see me in a gym either. I personally don't like to work out in a gym. I have equipment at home and that's how I work out at home. I will go to a gym, but that's not my first option. So offering maybe opportunities for people who work out at home to maybe get discounts on equipment or maybe work with some of these fitness companies and
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where they can go and get the equipment and maybe even get a physical trainer who can hold them accountable and push them. There's so many different
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It's just so many different options out there. You just have to be creative with it. Right, I think that's a lot. Exactly, knowing that this investment is going to pay off because it is going to allow the team members who want to be a part of the team and who want to grow the opportunity to do that in a healthy way, which will probably increase their loyalty to the company as well, because who's gonna wanna leave a company that takes care of them holistically? Right.
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to leave that. Yeah, so it's an investment, but is the return on investment is worth it. Right. No, I love that. I want to go back to the mental health conversation for a second. When I was doing some research for a presentation, I saw some, and I'll remove the numbers. I have to look the numbers up and I'll put the links to some of these in the description of this. But there is a fear of employees, retaliation from the company. If they say
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a mental health day or they're afraid to tell their manager that they're struggling mentally for fear of losing their job and there are there are numbers I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head but um one what are your thoughts on that and what how yeah what it's one of your thoughts on that period really no question just your thoughts I can definitely see that because people hide a lot of things that work people hide that they're they're
13:09
And though they have employee resource counseling and things of that nature, you've gotta have a trust in the company and you work for to be able to open up and be that vulnerable because you're sharing some intimate details about yourself. And unfortunately, you can't share those details with everybody. So what that tells me is if an employee doesn't feel comfortable doing that, there's either been experiences where retaliation has happened.
13:39
Trust that has been betrayed of past experiences. There's a culture of fear that You have to be a hundred percent on in order to work for this company and all of those things are legitimate Here's the thing though. If I was a CEO of a company And I'm hearing that people are scared
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to tell their leaders and managers that they are experiencing a hardship or a challenge. Cause life out here, life in. Life is life in. It is life in. And so people going through some things and you don't know what they're going through. I would rather you take a mental health day and get right than coming up in here and shooting up my establishment. For real.
14:26
I would prefer that you go away for a couple of weeks and get yourself together before doing something detrimental that harms everybody in the company. That you can't move away from us too late. Exactly and what companies are going to need to do is if an employee comes and divulges that information and they're retaliated against, the person who retaliated against them gots to go.
14:54
Because when you start seeing that leadership is intentional and serious about maintaining a culture where everybody feels that they belong and they can be themselves and they can take that time, behaviors are going to change because now you don't want to be that one that retaliates and now you lose your job. Right.
15:18
right? So it's a very I saw it when I worked. I worked for a financial institution. And we had a situation that was that was public where we had a team member take their life at the location that I was at on the floor I was on in a conference room. I'm just sitting there working. Of course I was working like if everything great until I get a chat message from a friend of mine saying Paula.
15:48
Why swat up in here? I said, huh? And I've been thinking when she first reached out, I'm like, hey girl, how you doing? Right? She's like, I'm going to need you to get up and look outside. And I got up and I looked outside. I was like, oh. I had no clue. It just happened down the hall for me. I had no clue. Shut up. But that'll tell you how serious people are. I had a friend of mine who went to work.
16:15
Saw this friend at work smiled by that afternoon His manager came to me. She crying Talking about he just took his life. I Had no clue Looking at this person that day getting your dad and whatnot. That's something that serious was going on and The next thing I know he gone by the afternoon. That's the stuff you deal with
16:43
That is the stuff you do. And then the consequences of that, right? So you have somebody, these are two instances now that I've had somebody who's taken their life, one I knew, one I did not. But if you watch...
16:56
the domino effect of that. Now the team. That was my next question. What does that team go from there? What is the energy in that building, in that department? So now they wanna have counselors and they wanna have people on site to help people go through their emotions. Or now let's do training on if we had an active shooter in the facility, what would we do? Okay, but could this have been avoided from the beginning, right?
17:26
been something that we could have taken into account before it got to this point. Now some things you can't avoid, but what are those things we can put in place? Is there now, I will tell you the first story I told you, that person did everything right. They had an employee assistant counseling, manager knew. I mean, it wasn't like this person wasn't vulnerable and hit anything. But he was always so happy. We never knew exactly. And so it was sort of like, you know, you're thinking you're doing.
17:56
everything right, but again you just never know anybody's mental state. But wouldn't it be amazing if we gave employees time?
18:04
to actually just take time to work on their mental and go through some things and just put that as part of our culture and not just wait until they say, I need a mental health day. Provide opportunities where we are conditioning and helping and strengthening and encouraging and inspiring and motivating. It's just a part of the culture that we bring to work. Again, it takes time and it's an investment, but would you rather do that
18:34
much money now you have to spend because of the aftermath of something that's happened that's now emotionally charged and triggered a whole campus.
18:44
real because by the time someone says they need a mental break they needed that break a week ago exactly they were too afraid to say anything so what is that so where's that start at though Paula so you have a company they have let's just say for example say their company culture is doo-doo right they
19:14
Not trying to be there, but the CEO, whoever it is, I want to make a change. What is that first step into that direction? What's your vision? Tell me your vision and make it plain and tell me why. You're gonna have to get people behind your vision. The vision is I know what my culture is today. I don't like it. I want to change it. And this is what I want the new culture to be. Who else has feedback on what this culture should be?
19:43
Get people to buy into it, get people to be a part of it. Don't just be sort of like a dictator. Because if people buy into it and help write the vision, they're gonna have more ownership of it. And then you have the whole people accountable. This is the part that I feel in most companies, and even in our personal lives, we don't do well, and that's accountability. We have all these great ideas. So even when I talk to people about their personal goals, they can list them, right?
20:12
But then they come back six months later, yeah, I haven't worked in any of those, well, why? So when a person writes a goal for me, I tell them I need to understand the why behind it and the desired outcome behind it. Because that why should motivate you. And if that why doesn't motivate you, then your why isn't big enough. So if the CEO has a big enough vision, a big enough why, and a big enough desired outcome, and have enough people to get behind it,
20:39
That difference can be made. It's gonna take some work though. Shifting a culture is not easy. You might have to clean house. You might have to reevaluate the people who are in positions of power and influence that may not be the right people to be in those positions of power and influence with the shift you wanna make with your culture. Some of those are hard decisions, especially if some of them are your friends. Ooh, yeah, or been in that position for a long time. And yeah.
21:09
But sometimes maybe necessary. I want to touch on a community of workers that from the, I'm just talking from my point of view.
21:26
when I was in corporate wellness. Okay. And we had a lot of clients, big name companies. But we never talked about or worked with those smaller companies that couldn't afford corporate wellness. Those are the companies that only hire part-time work. Right. And a lot of those workers are in underserved communities and the social drivers and determinants of health that go with that situation. What are your thoughts on that
21:56
on make you know they need help and wellness and stuff too. What does that look like? You know this is a space where I think as community and community organizations we can do a better job. You and I were talking about it earlier a lot of us are replicating a lot of what's already out there and but we can have a bigger impact if we unify and so I think there's opportunities for the underserved. Well number one
22:24
We need to keep pushing in our legislature change where we have equitable healthcare for everyone. Because it's not equitable, it's not. And anybody who says it is, is delusioned at this point. It's not equitable healthcare. So that means for those underprivileged areas, I need you to, I need to hear your voice. I need you out there. I need you in the spaces where you can influence the change you want to see. It's gonna take work on both sides.
22:53
In addition to that, I truly believe this could be a collaboration between big corporate and smaller businesses to help those smaller businesses to be better and to bring those services. I don't think we necessarily always need to have a separation. I'm a small business owner. I don't think we necessarily always have to have a separation of I'm small business, I'm big corporate.
23:21
Big corporate, you have a lot of influence and a lot of power and a lot of say. Work with some of these smaller businesses and help. Is there a way that we can collaborate?
23:34
in offering services or being a part of a program that you offer that can also benefit the employees. Because here's the thing, I might be a small business, but I'm also developing those who work in my organization. They may not stay with me all the time. They might end up going over to corporate. That's true. So all you're doing is developing a workforce that benefits us all, depending on however they move.
24:02
So is there opportunity there, and I know we talk about supplier diversity and things of that nature too, there's opportunity there where again, where I think.
24:12
corporate can help some of these smaller businesses based on the services that they offer, which will allow them to get more contracts and more things that they can offer even more benefit and resources to their employees and help. So I do think there's a collaboration that can happen and that can work if we actually are intentional and put work to it. And I also think there are nonprofit organizations that small businesses can actually work for
24:42
as well and work with to see if there's a way they can collaborate there too. Nonprofits tend to get grants, federal funding, depending on the nonprofit state funding. Is there opportunity based on what that nonprofit is offering as services that we can, maybe we do services for your nonprofit, but we also receive services from your nonprofit based on what you offer. So if there is a nonprofit that's focused on mental illness,
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and that's what they do. Is there a way my small business, my employees and stuff, can we collaborate and hook into that so that I can, whatever my small business is, how can we serve your community and then how can you also serve my community? If you get a grant to provide mental health resources to your community, utilizing that as a program or something for small businesses that couldn't afford that so their employees can get those resources, but also their
25:42
providing that as a wellness benefit. Mm-hmm. Oh my god, that's so easy. I just came up with that. Look, this is why you do what you do. I just came to my god, my head. And I gotta record it. Don't think I ain't gonna use it. It's all good. I understand. But it's, it's, I'm sure.
26:05
You know, being realistic, I know it's easier said than done, but that sounds so simple. You just have to be intentional. And the only reason that came to me probably is because I am a small business and I've worked in corporate. I've worked, I've sat on boards of nonprofits and now, you know, I've worked with nonprofits and I just think about, we could be more synergized where we all win.
26:29
It's not about who has the most power, who has the most money, but if we're truly about community, how are we benefiting the people in the community and how are we all winning as a community together? To think about it, if we did something like this in Iowa and it was a massive success, you don't think other states are going to try and duplicate what we're doing? Oh my gosh, absolutely.
26:53
The impact we can have is astronomical, but again a lot of us are just so siloed. We have an idea, I want to do my idea. Even if somebody else is also already doing that, I want to do my idea. But we could be so much more impactful if we strategize a little differently. No, that's so real.
27:14
Let's move it over to my city, my health. I would have had you on the show anyway, but that's what we got you here for today. I can always come back and talk about other stuff.
27:28
What are you looking forward to with your panel? Okay, so I'm gonna back up. What am I looking forward to, period. So, I was supposed to be there last year. You were supposed to be. And I paid and everything, and I was pumped up, and then my tail got sick.
27:47
And I was like, Cory, get my ticket to somebody because I ain't gonna make it. Y'all don't want me up in there with this sickness anyway. I don't even remember what I had, but I was pretty down and out. So I was sad because I didn't get, I saw all like the pictures and stuff afterwards. And I was like, I was sad. And I was sad because fitness, that's a part of what I do in my business. So I, of course I want to support organizations and things that are doing things that mean a lot, especially means a lot to, and I'm really gonna speak to the black community right now
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some health challenges that we just organically have. I am looking forward to learning the knowledge since I wasn't able to make it last year since I got sick. So I'm looking forward to that and engaging with other people that are in the health and wellness world that I may not even know exist.
28:35
So I want to engage in that. As far as the panel itself, I love being on panels. I love hearing other people's perspectives. I love giving mine. I love that Larry is going to be there. You know, we've worked together in the past and we have a great relationship and a great way that we interact in engagement. So I'm gonna look forward to that. And I'm just gonna soak it up and get everything I can out of it. That's the biggest thing for me. Yes, yes.
29:03
Ninja P, Paula Bell, business consultant P. I don't know what the three or four are. But thank you so much for being here.
29:12
For anybody listening or watching that wants to learn more about you, connect with you and your services, where can they find you? Easiest way to get to me is my website. My website has all of my social media handles and everything on it. So it's www.paulaabell.com. That's two A's in the middle now, paulaabell.com. Cause if you go to Paula Bell, you can get somebody totally different that doesn't look to me. So make sure it's paulaabell.com. And then definitely follow me on all those social media platforms, LinkedIn.
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Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, I'm posting YouTube. I'm posting stuff all over the place on all different types of content. So I would love for you to follow. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you. Thank you for being here. Yes. Thank you for being a part of the My City, My Health Conference this year. Yes. I really appreciate that. Everybody, thank you for listening to the Healthy Project Podcast. I'll highlight you next time.