Keep Leading!® Podcast 057 | Self-Care for Leaders | Julie Rosenberg, MD

Eddie Turner:

This is the very first time I am trying to record and produce the Keep Leading!® Podcast live. So, I’d like to say a very warm welcome to any who are tuning in with me. Welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast, the podcast dedicated to leadership development and insights. I’m your host, Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®. I work with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact through the power of executive and leadership coaching, facilitation, and professional speaking.

I always say I’m excited to have my guests because I’m been so privileged to have some amazing people on the Keep Leading!® Podcast but my guest today, you’re looking at her, she’s absolutely amazing. Let me tell you, we are in the midst, as we all know, of an unprecedented global pandemic. And in a very short period of time, everything has changed. Dr. Julie Rosenberg, a senior medical consultant and expert on conscious living is here with me today and she will address how we can best practice self-care and maintain a state of wellbeing during these difficult and challenging times. Dr. Julie Rosenberg is a pharmaceutical executive and a global healthcare leader. She’s also an executive coach who helps successful leaders get even better by developing themselves and their people to embrace conscious living. Dr. Rosenberg has devoted the last 16 years to in-depth study and the practice of Yoga and meditation. She’s a keynote speaker and an author of medical literature and nonfiction, including her new book Beyond the Mat and Be True. The other interesting thing about Dr. Rosenberg is out of 16,000 people who applied to be one of Marshall Goldsmith’s coaches, she was selected. So, she’s a member of the esteemed MG100. So, I’m excited to have Dr. Rosenberg with me today.

Welcome, Dr. Rosenberg.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Hi, Eddie. It’s great to be here with you. And we should tell our viewers and listeners that we know each other actually through the MG100. So, I’m delighted to be there and to know some wonderful people like yourself and I really appreciate your leadership in the coaching field and our collaboration because I believe it’s going to be, right now with this global pandemic, sort of the marriage, if you will, of medical professionals and key business professionals that will help along with our government officials to really solve these problems and take us to the next level and create opportunity for as much normal as possible as we move through the pandemic and get back on with our lives.

Eddie Turner:

Absolutely. And, in fact, that’s why we’re here because I’ve been listening to you on our Friday morning medical updates. Marshall has brought all of his coaches together every day since this pandemic has broken out for a meeting every morning. And, on Fridays, it’s all about medical. And instead of listening to us in general, he always lets the experts like you talk. And I’ve just been fascinated by the depth of knowledge that you have and what you bring to us. So, I just said I have to get you on the show. I have to talk to you.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Well, I appreciate that, Eddie. And maybe I can clarify for folks sort of where I’m coming from. I’m trained and certified as a pediatric oncologist and I’ve worked in both academic medicine and in the pharmaceutical industry. And in my past 16 years in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on cancer drugs and cancer-related vaccines, I’ve really learned a lot about one, the cancer patient population and two, drug development. And as it relates to the population, what I know and what’s so important with our current pandemic is that we need to really respect the fragility of life for all of us. One minute, you can be fine and the next minute you’re not. And I’ve unfortunately seen this too many times. And I’ve seen very high-risk patients succumb to various diseases. And so, we need to respect that possibility for all of us. And COVID-19 while, of course, not a cancer is behaving in this way for many people. One minute you’re fine, the next minute you’re not.

The other thing that I know in drug development is that it’s very meticulous in terms of how we identify compounds, how we develop them, and how we launch them. Not every drug is appropriate for every individual. And this also relates to vaccine development. It is a methodical approach to developing a vaccine. And so, it is in these two areas, the fragility of life, how we manage ourselves and how we care for ourselves, and how we achieve our highest state of wellbeing and then, secondarily, in the area of vaccine and drug development that I feel I can offer the most value in this critical time.

Eddie Turner:

Well, speaking of that, and you are offering tremendous value, for sure, speaking of that, when we think about wellness and self-care during a time like this, besides the obvious, what makes this so important?

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Well, I think first and foremost right now, Eddie, as I think you know and hopefully all our listeners know, everybody’s practicing social distancing. So, it’s about self-care. And it’s about community care. So, let’s focus on the self first. We need to do everything we can to protect ourselves at this moment from this virus which is somewhat ubiquitous, meaning there’s no person left behind. It’s a great equalizer. Sometimes these serious illnesses, because it doesn’t necessarily matter who you are, what your position in life is, where you’re coming from around the globe, you’re potentially at risk. So, you want to do everything you can to support yourself to your own highest state of wellbeing. And those things include things like diet and any type of supplementation, exercise, breathing, meditation. We want to be to be sort of stable, if you will, with this sort of, I’ll call it a chaotic system going on around us but then, in addition to self-care, we have what I call the responsibility of community care. And community care is that, realistically, I’m in Florida, Eddie, I believe you’re in Texas, I mean, what you do right now with your health affects me because everybody affects everybody else. And that is how we’re going to overcome this together as one, I think my friend Chris Cuomo says this a lot, together as one. We need to really think about ourselves and our communities as one to be able to move forward. And last comment about this line of thinking is I was listening to Governor Cuomo this morning of New York and he reminded the nation on television that this pandemic, at least as it relates to the crisis in New York, is only 37 days long and it seems like a century, like an eternity. So, the things that we do now are going to be impactful for us in the here and now but they will also provide a foundation for our future. And I think that’s important for everyone to think about.

Eddie Turner:

Indeed. And I love what you said, Dr. Rosenberg, in terms of the community aspect of self-care, that what one individual community does or individual in a community will affect the others in the community at large. And I think that’s probably where we see some of the conflict between should there be a blanket order to shelter in place for the entire nation versus states having to do it on their own because it’s not like I’m going to just stay here in Texas. I will travel and if I am infected, then I can pass it along and do damage to others. Is that true?

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Well, of course. Obviously, right now, probably none of none of us are traveling. Hopefully, none of us are traveling unless there’s truly an urgent need to do so. And we’re developing a new normal for so many people of working from a home base. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily apply to all medical professionals who are on the front lines of direct patient service, the one-on-one patient service, but I think when I’m talking about more and I do believe there should be a government mandate, really a government shutdown, we are one nation and to suggest that some areas aren’t as effective as others, in the here and now, that’s true. Right now, the peak in New York in the United States is certainly the highest. There’s been the most deaths in New York and the most number of cases but this is a transitioning virus. Again, it’s not discriminatory. The virus has a way of responding and acting, if you will for all of us. And so, we really need to come together as a nation and it is my opinion that to rebuild the economy and rebuild confidence and sound medical infrastructure that is going to take everyone. And so, it’s important to think about this as one and all, not just individual states. I also think we’d make more progress if we think about this one and all because I’m very concerned. As I mentioned, I live in Florida, we were late to have many closures. During the spring break period which just occurred we had people over our beaches. I’m fortunate to have my primary residence on Sanibel Islands, Florida, although I do work typically out of Boston based in the pharmaceutical industry. And I saw on Sanibel numerous vacationers, numerous rental bikes and around me on Fort Myers tons of folks on the beaches. And while I do think the word is getting out, just this morning I saw in my local Fort Myers newspaper that Home Depot is just totally packed. And, of course, many of our construction workers, landscape workers and the like are considered essential employees in certain areas, of course, but the bottom line here is that we need to take this seriously. And one way to take it seriously is a top-down more US-centric approach as they’ve done in other nations since I know that you’ve got viewers around the world.

Eddie Turner:

Yes. Thank you, Dr. Rosenberg. And to that end, may I ask you to do me a favor. I said that you are a pharmaceutical executive and a global healthcare leader in the intro but I don’t think that really does it justice. Can you tell my viewers a little bit more about just who you are and what the depth of your experience is in the medical field?

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Sure. So, as I mentioned earlier, I am a pediatric oncologist by background in training. I’m strictly Western trained in medicine but I do have certifications as a Yoga meditation and mindfulness instructor because in addition to working with cancer patients, one of my personal and professional goals is to help people achieve their highest state of wellbeing. And I think these frameworks can help to do it. So, I’ve worked for three major companies overseeing oncology drug development programs worldwide with a considerable focus actually in Asian nations with some of the work that I’ve done in China as well as Japan. And then, in addition, I’ve helped to bring forward a number of oncology products and biosimilar oncology products as well. Here, recently in the past year, I’m working more in a consulting capacity, helping smaller biotech companies from the get-go to develop their products. So, while my focus is on oncology, because in oncology, I have worked on vaccines and currently am working on a vaccine that could be useful for patients with breast cancer as well as multiple myeloma, I do understand the paradigm of new drug development and how we need to do research on existing products if we want to reinvigorate them for treatments such as treatments for COVID-19. So, that’s kind of where I come into the frame here from both my drug development experience and then my personal desire from seeing so much – “Now you’re fine. Now you’re not. Oh my gosh! What am I going to do?” Let me help people achieve their highest state of wellbeing and let me be an example of that to the best of my ability.

Eddie Turner:

Excellent. Thank you. Sorry if I missed that. I wanted to just highlight your area of work specifically there with what you’re doing with vaccines and your depth of knowledge around that, especially at a time like this where that becomes so valuable.

You said something else I found interesting when you were talking about our immunity and what we need to do as a part of our self-care. You said this on the call with Marshall to us the other day. And you didn’t see my face fall. I just felt like “Oh my goodness! She is talking about me.” You said “While we’re at home sheltering in place, resist the urge to eat a bunch of junk food.” And I got to tell you, Dr. Rosenberg, I’ve been eating nothing but junk. I had actually been doing well on a program to lose weight. I had lost about 10 pounds or so. And I’ve gained all 10 back and probably 10 more during this time period. Can you share the advice that you gave to us about how we should be living during this time we’re sheltering in place to keep our immunity high?

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Sure. So, first and foremost, I mean, we all have a tendency in times of stress, and I believe that everyone has got to have some experience of stress in this pandemic period with all the changes that we’re all having to navigate, but if we fall into very bad habits, I’m very worried that we will be a nation when the pandemic abates, which hopefully it will, sooner rather than later, of more ill individuals than we already are. We already have a crisis of obesity and sedentary lifestyles in the US and beyond. And I am very concerned that the crisis will be worse. So, what can we do in the here and now, it’s always about the present, that’s why I like Yoga and meditation so much, what can we do in the present? Well, there’s a real value to paying attention to your diet to actually, now the CDC is even recommending, some folks are recommending not even to go to the grocery but you could order online and have things deliver, think about foods that you might like. You have more time at home. You have more time to think what would you like that’s fairly healthy because there’s a reality with our junk foods, our chips and our pizza and our fries and this and that, that these starchy foods, they’re metabolized to sugar. And sugar in abundance is very well known to destroy immunity. And then people have a tendency, when they’re sitting at home, I hate to say it, to drink more. And if you’re drinking more alcohol, of course, or even sugar beverages but I’m referring to alcohol, alcohol also in abundance can impact negatively your immunity and it can also deplete you of essential nutrients. So, if we are sitting around and if we are eating beaucoup of junk, that’s really a problem. So, I would encourage people to think about eating whole and nutritious foods, to think about what you might add to your diet in terms of any type of herbs and supplements and the like and to not fall into this situation where you gain a lot of weight and you’re very, very sedentary because the other thing is you’re going to feel crummy. And we want to feel as good as we can now to respond in the best possible way personally and, again, as a community, to this pandemic. So, I’d encourage you to structure your life, think about what you’re eating, don’t grab and go, as we might be prone to do, but really think about it.

The flip side of what I’m saying, if I could just make one more quick comment, and then I’d love to hear your thoughts, Eddie, on this topic because I know you said you’re falling into some of these habits, one more thing. Don’t deny yourself totally. I have to acknowledge while I personally am not a big sweet eater, I enjoy a glass of wine with my dinner sometimes and I might like a good loaf of French bread or whatever. So, everything in moderation. I’m not asking you all to be on a diet. Diet is a four-letter word and I don’t want you to deny yourself. ‘Deny’ is another four-letter word but what I want you to do is to be thoughtful, to be mindful and to be observant. And that’s part of my whole gestalt with all of this – Where are you in time and space? What can you do in the here and now to support yourself and your wellbeing?

Eddie Turner:

Well, thank you. And, yeah, before you gave those suggestions to us, you said a phrase that I have underlined and burned into my mind. You said “Food is medicine.” And so, I love that analogy. And I literally, since Friday, my wife will tell you, I have changed. Sunday was national deep-dish pizza day. And for a guy from Chicago who loves his deep-dish pizza, I behaved. I’ve had more kale and spinach, Dr. Rosenberg.

Well, the other thing you told us is to get our sleep and don’t feel guilty about that.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Well, yeah, this is another thing. Again, I believe that structure is underrated in general. And I think that for adults, we need seven to nine hours of sleep per night to refresh and to rejuvenate. And while I don’t suggest doing everything from the bed and I do suggest getting up even at this time, getting dressed, preparing for your day, and constructing a work environment if you’re working at home, that’s a feeling common to you and that’s functional. I do suggest those things. I also suggest at night that you work your way to get sleep because if you’re not sleeping well, if you don’t get good REM sleep, that’s the sleep that really helps us rest, we’re depleted the next day and poor sleep impacts immunity negatively.

Eddie Turner:

Yes. And so, we must get our REM sleep and deep restorative sleep is very important. [Inaudible] told us to move. Don’t just lay around even if we’re in a small apartment or a small setting as many New Yorkers are, all of our friends we have there, that there were still suggestions you made that we can still be moving in a small space.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Right. Absolutely. And there are many things. Actually, I am thinking about putting out a little guide to this. There are many things that you can do in a small space. So, the three components of exercise that we really want to pay attention to are stretching as well as weight bearing exercise as well as cardiovascular exercise. And all of this you can do with your body. You can do, for example, stretching, there are many different stretches for all parts of your body. These things can be online. And you should do them throughout the day because you don’t want to have back pain and neck pain and all sorts of difficulties from the sedentary lifestyle. So, do them throughout the day. Cardiovascular exercise, even if you have a very small space, you can still do jumping jacks and leg lifts and knee kicks and squat jumps and butt kicks. And there’s a number of things you can do. Again, all these things I’m listing, of course, we’re not in a situation where I can demonstrate them here. However, there are good freebies online that you can pay attention to. And then for strength training as well, there are a number of things where you can keep your muscles in pretty good shape. And there’s something out there called the seven-minute workout that I like. These things don’t have to take forever. I like these shorter workouts but don’t avoid them. And so, I will say from my own situation, and I like to exercise because I feel so much better, I try to do this early in the morning. And I am in an area where I can go out solo and ride a bicycle. And I encourage you, if you’re not otherwise confined to a very small area, to do those kinds of things but there’s no excuses. That’s what I want to tell you. There’s no excuses. Excuse is within yourself for not doing these things. And once you take ownership of that, for all of us, perhaps we can move forward but it is possible to do all these things in a confined space.

Eddie Turner:

Outstanding. Thank you, Dr. Rosenberg. So, we need to move, eat right, get our sleep and that’s a part of self-care which by extension will be community care. So, thank you, Dr. Rosenberg.

I’m talking with Dr. Julie Rosenberg. She is a global healthcare leader and a pharmaceutical executive and we’re going to take a pause right here. We’ll have more with Dr. Rosenberg right after this.

Eddie Turner:

So, we are back, everyone. I’m talking to the amazing Dr. Julie Rosenberg. Dr. Rosenberg is a pharmaceutical executive and a global healthcare leader who is helping us to understand how, during this critical time, you and I as leaders can maintain our wellness and our self-care.

So, we got great tips before the break from you, Dr. Rosenberg. I also would like to switch gears now and I want to include some time to talk about your book. You have written two books that we introduced earlier. And I think for those who may still be able to see the video, go ahead and hold those up for us, please.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Sure. So, my first book was Beyond the Mat. It’s published by the Capitol Press and the Hachette Group. It came out in the end of 2017. I’m pleased to say it’s been helpful to really thousands of people. And what this book does is it really takes the framework of the Yoga sutras which is really the wisdom of Yoga and makes them relevant to modern times. And in being so relevant, it leads us to a framework again of optimal leading and living. So, it really is a book that I intend for both leaders of corporations but for anyone else who wants to find a framework of what I call enlightened leadership to be able to lead in a way that offers self-care, community care, as well as visionary thinking and optimal leadership for the long term. So, that was my first book – Beyond the Mat.

The second book was actually published, this book is called Be True, through KDP Publishing on Amazon. And I wrote Be True as a correlate to Beyond the Mat after I received hundreds of requests “Could we have a self-study guide, a journal type format, so that we can really look at ourselves more specifically, so we can do the things that you recommend in Beyond the Mat and come back to our own narrative and review it?” So, I’m happy to say that my friend and mentor and yours as well, Eddie, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, he termed this a critical guide for knowing yourself and to becoming a highly effective leader.

Eddie Turner:

That’s a strong endorsement.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Yeah, I always appreciate Marshall’s endorsements. It means somehow we’re on the right track. I’ll never know for sure if I am or not but if Marshall says it’s good, I kind of think it’s good but what I’m hopeful for, for everyone, whether it’s Be True or whether it’s some other anthology that you pick up or just a blank journal, I’m hoping that people take this time to work on themselves and to really do some self-observation, some self-reflection as to what their goals are and who they are in the here and now and what they want to be in the longer term. And I don’t just mean what you want to be in terms of your career per se. What you want to be as a person, as a contributor to society, as a contributor to your family, what do you want to be now and in the future as time goes on. And does that look different than it looked at for you pre pandemic? So, I think these are real opportunities for people to support their self-actualization, their self-reflection, an opportunity for all of us to take this difficult situation and maybe make it a little lighter and make it productive for us now and in the long term.

Eddie Turner:

Wonderful. Well, congratulations on your new book and certainly congratulations on getting a tremendous stamp of approval from Marshall Goldsmith himself. I’ve fascinated by your work and the great things that you’re doing and that type of book specifically will allow us to kind of have you in our ear as we’re taking the steps that you tell us and marking the steps that we need to take to move forward.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

That’s really great. And, as I said, at the end of the day, all of this is up to the individual but what I would hope that people do is really ascribe to a path of greater self-awareness, greater resilience and greater self-care, which will serve you for the long term. As I said, I really fear that this crisis could lead to a more sedentary population, a more ill population, a bigger pandemic, if you will, of obesity and inactivity. And that’s very serious too. So, I’m trying to help intervene in the here and now to the best of my ability as an individual and appreciate folks like you, Eddie, to have this awareness to bring it forward to your groups as well.

Eddie Turner:

Thank you, Dr. Rosenberg. And you have great advice for us in that book and you shared some advice with us earlier, things we can do right now, but is there anything else you would tell us we need to do so that we can be productive and maintaining our focus during this critical time?

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Well, think about your health and your life and your work and your family and everything that you do maybe not as separate but as one to some extent. It’s one unit. You’re one individual. And we talk now not just about self-care. We talk about community care and we talk more broadly really about care of the nation and care of the world. And if you look at yourself in this way, where do you fit in? And so, again, back to Be True a little bit, I think that what I have in Be True is an assessment for the individuals of what are your core values, what does a living with purpose look like for you, what are the things that you’re really strong in, what are the things you’d like to improve on, what does your leadership look like now and how do you see it in the future, what does your career look like, etc. etc. And I think if we take the time to reflect on all of these things while we are paying attention to maximizing our immunity through sleep, through diet, through exercise, through good relationships, we haven’t talked about that, but minimizing our stress and also I can add to that supporting our stress reduction through breathwork, through meditation work, through Yoga, and, again, all this is available to you online, I think that we will come out of this better than we were before as individuals and as a community. And that would be my goal for myself, for you, Eddie, and for everyone.

Eddie Turner:

Well, thank you. I have thoroughly enjoyed talking to you and I can’t wait to have you back again because I understand that you’ve done some work and you’re seeing some things in your research around how this whole COVID-19 is affecting not just even the general population but specifically the impact it’s having on African-Americans specifically. So, I’d love to get more insights from you on that and so many things that you are just such an expert on.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Right Well, I’m not sure I’m an expert in vaccines per se but I do focus on population health and large groups through drug development. And any wisdom that I’ve gained, I’m always happy to share. And it’s really been a pleasure chatting with you, Eddie. I should remind you that we’re doing this because you’re really one of my favorites in the MG100 because I like your style, I like your ambition and I like the fact that you’re such a real human being. So, I really appreciate those things and I’m delighted to be of service to you and the entire Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches group as well as all of the community.

Eddie Turner:

That’s so sweet of you. Thank you so much, Dr. Rosenberg.

Dr. Rosenberg, here on the Keep Leading!® Podcast, I always ask my leaders, in addition to the great content you’ve shared, for a quote or the best piece of advice you’ve ever heard. Do you have something like that you can share with my leaders to help us keep leading?

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Yes. I would say one of my favorite quotes, Eddie, is from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and that is “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” And right now, we’re in an environment where there is a lot of fear. We can take charge and take control as much as we can. And I think we’ve talked today about ways to abrogate that fear and to be able to use self-care to improve our lives and the lives of our community.

Eddie Turner:

Wonderful. Thank you. Where can my listeners learn more about you?

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Well, my website is www.DrJulieRosenberg.com. And my books are available in local bookstores and of course online since we’re getting everything online, easily accessible through Amazon, through Books a Million, Barnes & Noble, etc. And I’d love to hear from folks as to if the work is helpful because that’s always the goal.

Eddie Turner:

Excellent. So, we’ll be sure to put all this in the show notes and encourage people to reach out and connect to Dr. Rosenberg. She really is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I just absolutely adore Dr. Rosenberg. She’s wonderful. And connect with her, read her books, and book her for a speaker at your conferences when we start to have those again. And even if you do something online, she is an expert who you’d want to have. And thanks for that quote on fear, by the way, because it is certainly apropos at a time like this, where so many of us for a variety of reasons, do have fear in one aspect of our lives.

Thanks again, Dr. Julie Rosenberg.

Dr. Julie Rosenberg:

Thank you, Eddie. A pleasure.

Eddie Turner:

And thank you for listening. That concludes this episode, everyone. I’m Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®, reminding you that leadership is not about our title or our position. Leadership is an activity. Leadership is action. It’s not the case of once a leader, always a leader. It’s not a garment we put on and take off. We must be a leader at our core and allow it to emanate in all we do. So, whatever you’re doing, always keep leading.