Money & Plants Conor Devine

This week is my 7 year anniversary, in terms of the last time I took conventional medicine to manage my MS.
On 16th April 2016, against the wishes of my medical team and almost everyone else, I stopped taking the disease modifying therapy, "COPAXONE" and all other medication I may have been taking intermittently.
I had made the decision to transition to lifestyle medicine, with the view to trying to facilitate the healing process in my body.

Thankfully, 7 years later, my health is tremendous, physically and mentally, and determination is robust, in terms of attacking each day and sticking to my plan.

There are alot of people keeping an eye on my health, and all I really want to do by continuing to share my own life experiences, is to prove that there could be another way, and that it is possible for all of us to heal, but with one condition- we must help and facilitate this process, by taking the appropriate action.

I hope some of you guys get some value from this, and that some of my own experiences, resonates with you.

If you want to reach me, send a mail to conor@conordevine.com

Untill next time,

Look after yourself,

Keep the faith 🙏

CD ☘️

I am delighted to bring you guys my 50th episode of the podcast, and even more delighted that in this episode I have switched the dial back to health and longevity again.  For me health is absolutely everything.  If I am fit, well and healthy, then I believe I can do and achieve almost anything, including be a good parent to my two kids, continue to grow my business, and in short, to stick to the plan of being the best version of myself. 
If you can relate to all of the above, then you want to pay attention to my guest Dr Paddy Barrett.  
I came across Paddy's work on line over the Summer, and immediately he struck a number of chords with me. Primarily what I thought was really interesting about Paddy, was his willingness, passion and determination to share so much information, and to do this, so well across all of the main social media channels including twitter, instagram and LINKEDin.
Dr Barrett is a preventative Cardiologist, working out of the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin, and in combination with his cardiology training at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland he has acquired extensive specialty cardiology training in world class medical centres in New York and California.
As part of Dr Barrett's time in the US, he played a pivotal role in the development of several novel technologies, large scale clinical trials and has published extensively in the field. He speaks regularly around the world on heart disease.
For me I am particularly interested in heart disease as it continues to be the the world's no.1 killer, taking over 17 million lives every single year, and in Ireland alone accounts for some 36% of all deaths claiming around 10,000 people every year. 
In this conversation, I ask Paddy about why he got into medicine, in particular his specialism, what is heart disease and then talk about some of the things each of us can do to prevent this disease and prolong each of our lives. 
Paddy truly believes part of the answer to this emergency is in policy and that Is the responsibility of the government to incentivise it's citizens to live healthier lives and to cohabit environments that is aligned to people living much more healthier lives. "Show me the Incentive and I will show you the Outcome" is a line paddy mentioned a few times throughout the course of this conversation. 
"Physiology doesn't care about your schedule" - another one of Paddy's favourite lines... how many people do you know who say they're too busy, have too much on, and will start a new program tomorrow, next week, the New Year..... almost everyone I know - problem being, that can keeps getting kicked down the road until you start presenting with symptoms and as Paddy says, that's far too late to be reading and making a change. 
With 25% of Irish kids, and over 60% of our adult population obese, it really is time we all started to talk about this topic more, educate ourselves around it, face some home truths, and then start to make some real decisions around how we all lead our lives.
I was delighted to finish on a very positive note, in terms of my very last question. The summary note being it's literally never too late to make a lifestyle change, and that your body will react to this almost immediately.  Incredible to hear.
If you want to reach out to me, get me on conor@conordevine.com  - I would love to hear your feedback, or on any of my social media channels. 
I hope you really enjoyed series 4 of the podcast.  I was delighted to work with my new engineer Evan Balfe, who has made all of this sound pretty incredible.  Thanks Evan and I look forward to working with you on Series 5.
So all is left for me is to wish my tribe a very peaceful, health and happy Christmas, I hope to see you all in the New Year, so look after yourself and each other.
CD 

I am absolutely delighted to introduce you guys to Mr Ben Hunt, on episode 49 of the show. 

Ben Hunt has a Phd in political science from Harvard, an incredible entrepreneur who has co founded multiple tech companies, and has also managed his own billion dollar hedge fund.  

He is one of the USA's most critical thinkers right now, and also the founder and publisher of Epsilon Theory, an extremely popular website, and newsletter, where he focuses on trying to understand the narratives that are being created, refined and repeated across social and main stream media today. 

Epsilon Theory is a project committed to real change in the practice of investing and the practice of citizenship.  It describes itself as "an independent voice for change, with no obligation to anyone, but our readers, our clients, and our partners - our pack".

I have been following Ben's work only for a few months, and I have to say, how he thinks about things, and then goes onto explain what might be happening in the world, is a skillset and quality I have seen in very few humans I have came across to date.

In 2013, he decided to leave the rat race as such, possibly escape, might be a better way to put it, and to turn his attention to creating Epsilon theory, a publication which now has over 100,000 subscribers and highly regarded resource right across the world. 

One of the reasons I started the podcast in 2020, was to try and find some people, who could help all of us understand some of the things that are happening in the world right now.  A cursory look into Bens work and background will tell you he is an incredible guest for me to get onto Money and Plants.  

Ultimately I came away from this conversation incredibly thankful, for getting the opportunity to engage directly with Ben, who above all else, in my own opinion is an incredible story teller.

The conversation we kicked off with focuses on this, when Ben sets out that life ultimately is about the stories we tell ourselves, and how we decide to react to each of these stories. We also move into the territory of identity and how important it is for each of us in life, no matter who we are or where we might be going, to find our own identity, our own voice, our own passions in life. 

Some further clips and subject matter can be found below;

26:58 - how we perceive the world determines our reactions and behaviours

33:15  - the 3 headed monster, tech, pharma, media - the goal is to make us engage

35:15  - Dopamine machines - how our phones have changed absolutely everything

39:29 - How the FED wants to crush everyone's psychology to get inflation down

42:00 - Why and how he started Epsilon theory, coming from a dark place

43:42 - We can change the world.... from the bottom up

This was one of my favourite conversations to date on the podcast, and I hope you guys got some value from it.

Can I ask you to share the pod with a friend and maybe leave me a review if you have a few minutes.

You can reach me at conor@conordevine.com if you want to drop me a note or ask me a question.

Until next time, please look after yourself and each other,

CD

 

In this episode, we see the return of the original "Rogue Trader" Mr Nick Lesson, who I thought was the perfect guest to get back onto the show, in an effort to contextualise what is happening right now across the world in terms of the economics of it all, and projected recession.
Recently I attended a Bank of England presentation in Belfast, and the bank is very clear - they are projecting a long (2 years) slow painful recession for the UK, with plenty of pain, particularly for UK businesses and households, and those of us who have a mortgage.
Nick is one of the most well known traders and investors in the world, has lived through quite a number of big economic shocks / events, including "Black Monday" in 1989, the DOTCOM crash, the GFC and now what has been unravelling over the last two years, with the onset of the pandemic leading to the current crisis, where inflation is running at 40 year highs, and we appear to be entering another recession. 
Before I spoke to Nick, I was expecting him to be quite pessimistic of what might be en route, as generally he seems to take that sober outlook on the world and economies, however, surprisingly,  his outlook on how he see's things moving forward caught me a little by surprise, as it was much more optimistic. 
Nick's view is that it is quite natural for economies and markets to correct themselves, and in fact it is needed at times, so things can cool down, and people can take stock and review how they might come back into the market after a period of time.  
His observations are that earnings in the US remain quite high, and despite the FED increasing central bank base rates in super quick time, he does feel that the US market and economy is looking more at a softer landing, as opposed to a chaotic abrupt recession most are predicting, which to me was incredibly interesting.  Nick is however, more concerned about how this all plays out in Europe and the UK, and believes that things will be much more difficult for people this side of the Atlantic. 
I also spoke to Nick about the recent FTX / SBF financial disaster, which has caught the attention of the world's media, given the scale of the financial disaster that continues to unravel. 
Who better to speak to about what appears to be one of the biggest frauds in history than the original rogue trader himself.  It's interesting NIck's take on this incredible story, where over $36bn has been wiped from this company in a matter of days, as it's owner and the guy ultimately responsible (SBF), sits tweeting nonsense, apologising over twitter in real time - all very surreal.  Nick's overriding view being that the authorities will catch up with SBF, in the not too distant future.
We finish the conversation with Nick reiterating his view that he fears more for the UK and Europe economies, than the US, and is certainly much more optimistic and buoyant in general than much of what we hear and read these days, about what happens in our economy and markets in the next 18 / 24 months.
I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and remember if you prefer to watch it, you can now do that by subscribing to my YOUTUBE channel.  
If you have a question for me or you would like to get in touch with me, please email me at conor@conordevine.com 
Finally, and something you can do for me now - if you like the show, please give me a LIKE/ REVIEW/ and SHARE the show with a friend - that would be much appreciated.
Until next time, please look after yourself and each other.
CD

I have been following Michiel for a number of years and was delighted to finally catch up with him on Money & Plants earlier this week.
For any entrepreneur, the holy grail is often to exit or sell your business. For Michiel he has achieved that now a number of times, firstly selling his on line classified advert business, the most successful in Belgium to EBAY in 2013, which was a huge success for him personally.
Following some downtime, travelling around Australia drinking cocktails and loving life, this curious psychology graduate, couldn't resist the urge to get back into business, and over the last ten years, he has went into achieve incredible results lending his experiemce, expertise and own cash, to a number of fantastic entrepreneurs and businesses, achieving more exits, and more cheques along the way.
In this conversation I lift the bonnet on all of this, trying to get a feel for how Michiel thinks, works, and ultimately decides what companies he will invest in.
I drill into some of Michael's characteristics in this conversation covering items like the three successful habits of an entrepreneur, advice he would give to anyone starting a business, how to push through hard times, to what keeps him awake at night.
It was interesting the focus and importance Michiel put on knowing your numbers, which is pretty much non negotiable for anyone looking him or his investment company, Capital V's money.
What really struck me about Michiel in this conversation and one of the reasons I admire him and wanted to get him on this show was his humility and ability to communicate clearly and concisely.
Many entrepreneurs evolve, just like the rest of us humans, and it's interesting that Michiel has devided to CHANGE alot about his life, including developing a real passion for animals and becoming Vegan. His Investment platform Capital V, will only invest in companies that take the use of animals out of production, which is an incredibly conscious and admirable stragegy.
A fellow IRONMAN triathlete also, with 7 x Ironman races under his belt, that also tells you abit about Michiels mindset and "must do attitude" and approach he has to living.
For anyone looking to achieve success in life and business, I am sure you will get some value from this conversation.
Please share with a friend and leave me a review wherever you get your podcasts if you have a moment.
You can contact me on conor@conordevine.com for any feedback or questions about the show.
Until next time, look after yourself and each other CD ☘️

I am delighted to be back with another series of the podcast, and what a way to kick series 4 off with such a wonderful guest in Dr Jeffrey Rediger.
Jeffrey is a MD, physician, best-selling author, and well known public speaker in the USA.
He is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and medical director at Mc Lean Hospital.
His research with remarkable individuals who have recovered from incurable diseases, has been featured on Oprah Winfrey and Dr Oz TV shows, amongst others.
He has received numerous awards in relation to his leadership and patient care. His best-selling book CURED, The remarkable science and stories of healing and spontaneous recovery, is now available in multiple languages and selling around the world.
In this conversation I get into the detail with Jeffrey, and find out a little bit more about himself, the human being, and his own personal evolution as a medical doctor over the last thirty odd years.  It was wonderful to hear Jeffrey speak so openly and passionate about how he experienced so many patients who have been written off by everyone, including the medical community, fight back against all the odds to totally transform their health outcomes.
This is a really important conversation for me to have, and I am so grateful for Jeffrey for being so open and candid with me in our exchange.
In his new book and in this conversation, Jeffrey shares with me that he has researched 124 people who have all went onto experience spontaneous healing from terminal and incurable diseases. He talks about the 4 Pillars of health, The immune system, the nervous system, nutrition and the most interesting for me, healing your identity, and the role each of these pillars played in his patients recovery.
My message to you is to please share this podcast with anyone you think needs a little bit of hope and a little bit of light brought back into their life.  
Maybe its yourself, or you know someone else who is not feeling great, maybe they’ve just had that dreadful diagnosis, or maybe they’ve simply written themselves off in life.
The bottom line is that it’s never too late guys.  I am telling you form personal experience, YOU can HEAL, YOU can RECOVER. 
As I said in this conversation, we need to understand the power we all hold individually over our own health outcomes.  Your doctor’s not going to fix you, the drugs are not going to fix you, you have to figure out how to fix yourself.
This starts with an honest conversation with yourself, a body of work,  and a plan of how you are going to make the changes you need to make to get your health back.
I would encourage you to read Jeffrey's book, and to go on your own journey of healing and recovery.  I am yet to meet anyone who doesn’t want to feel that little bit better, move easier, and have more energy and fulfilment in life. What my own journey has taught me is that with a little bit of belief, followed by alot of work, absolutely everything is possible.
I hope you get some value from this one, and if you have a moment, please leave me a review, and or share this one with a friend.
You can reach me at conor@conordevine.com
Until next time, look after yourself, and each other,
CD