Connect with Angela Han on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/angelahanhealth

Connect with Russ Johns on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext

For more information visit his other websites:

russjohns.com/

thepiratesyndicate.com/

nextstepnext.com/

Russ Johns 0:04
Welcome to the #piratebroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community. #Kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let's get this party started.

It's another day for the #piratebroadcast. Thank you so much for being here. Drop some comments in the feed and let let us know that you're here at least it so I just wanted to thank you. I appreciate you being here. If you're watching this on the replay, just leave us some comments. We'll come back in real answers to the questions and if you have any questions, just drop them in the feed and we should be able to get get to them and I just wanted to thank thank everyone today for in #thepiratecommunity. I know we have a amazing guests that today Angela is going to talk about some of the things she's been doing. She has a podcast. She's in the healthcare arena, and she's also an attorney. Welcome, Angela. How are you doing?

Angela Han 1:10
Very good, Russ. Thanks so much for having me. I gotta say, I never imagined that I would ever be interviewed by somebody with such an exquisite beard as you

Russ Johns 1:26
well, I'm glad I can be here and we can have a fun time. I promote the idea that #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. If you can #enjoyyourday, and you can understand and appreciate some of the things that are going on, and make the best of it. That's what it's all about. Walk us through the journey. You're an attorney in healthcare that's unique. That's a unique combination. Talk us through the process, and what your focus is and how you got there.

Angela Han 1:59
Yeah, Corporate counsel at our health care company in the Baltimore area, which is a big health hub because of Johns Hopkins is here and I think the Center for Medicare, Medicaid is also headquarter here as well. So it's a huge healthcare hub in the city. I was blessed to go to law school in the DC in Washington, DC. I was able to kind of look at DC as well as Baltimore when I was looking for a job. I actually started out being in the education field because I was a teacher before law school, and so I thought I would fit well with education law.

Russ Johns 2:35
Mm hmm.

Angela Han 2:36
Then I realized that practicing education law and being a teacher two very different things, and

Russ Johns 2:44
How so? is it the dynamics of it?

Angela Han 2:48
Well, I guess as a lawyer, you just forget to interact with the community like as much as well. Sometimes you do like you're an advocate for a particular school. Particular stakeholders student or family, maybe but that was not the area that I was in.

Russ Johns 3:06
Ah got it

Angela Han 3:08
I had a moment of reckoning where I really want to do something that makes me kind of sparks joy in my life like want want to wake up in the morning and as I was watching this video online and it was say something like in order to find your passion, look at your biggest pain point. I realized that the biggest pain point that I had gone through was was my health journey. I actually grew up in Korea and came here for college. It's awesome for the first time and

Russ Johns 3:41
Wow

Angela Han 3:41
Yeah your world and so I struggled with a lot of mental health. Well, I struggle with with mental health and one of the ways I struggled was I had bulimia for seven years. I was very lucky to overcome it during law school through food and exercise. I realized more and more like being a lawyer that so many other attorneys were also struggling through something similar. I wanted to go into that field as a lawyer, but also as a health coach and a personal trainer, so that I can bring it all together.

Russ Johns 4:19
I want to unpack a little bit of that, because it's so important. I'm so glad that you made it through your challenges, and you're healthy and helping other people. That's really important for us to understand is that some of the most challenging times in our lives, the most challenging circumstances are kind of the fuel to generate some passion in our lives. I mean, it fuels our future in a way.

Coming from that mental challenge in that physical challenge. It's really it's striking to think that you use that energy to position yourself in helping other attorneys, which is an incredibly high stress position a lot of times so kind of walk us through what is it just attorneys that you help primarily and then you coach them or how does that process work?

Angela Han 5:25
Yeah, primarily lawyers. What we have is we have a little community called the fit to practice society. That actually started pretty recently. We were in the middle of a pandemic, I had just given birth to my daughter and it was more

Russ Johns 5:41
Congrats.

Angela Han 5:42
Thank you. We were all kind of stuck at home and I was kind of getting back on track with my exercising. I was trying to get cleared to exercise and I realized that other lawyers were also feeling a little antsy. We none of us could go to the gym, and like walk Running. That's all sounds great, but it's kind of number one is lonely and number two is kind of boring. I like to walk but not that much.

I just kind of posted on LinkedIn about if anybody wants to work out with me, let's do it. Then so it kind of sort of exploded from there. I was able to start this community on slack because of LinkedIn groups is not it's not optimized for I guess being as interactive as I'd like it to be. blog is not a place where a lot of attorneys really want to be I found out

Russ Johns 6:41
Yeah

Angela Han 6:41
It's a Slack was kind of like a little middle ground where it's like a separate from all of that and then we can just kind of have a conversation there. We just work out every Tuesday at 4:30pm. Eastern, and it's just a half an hour workout. A good break in the day, if you're in California time. So, yeah, it's just kind of the main offer that I have right now.

Russ Johns 7:07
That's fantastic. I want to talk a little bit about that because right now we're seeing a lot of that accountability is key because it's really easy. I've been going through this phase where it's like, Okay, I gotta get out of here. I need to do something else. Having that exercise group, I would imagine there's accountability involved. There's some enthuse some coaching or maybe there's maybe just motivation at some point in time. Just say, Hey, I got this group that I'm in. I'm gonna continue to do it.

Angela Han 7:55
Yeah

Russ Johns 7:56
Good thing.

Angela Han 7:57
Yeah. Yeah. I think the slack meeting is a huge piece of accountability where we just talk about the exercise, and how hard it was and how our abs are sore and everything after the workout. It just kind of creates a sense of like, oh, like I want to be part of that too. That's kind of how we we grow our participation throughout the weeks. For those attorneys who want to make you like more frequent, because we want to exercise more frequently throughout the week. I also have a paid program a paid membership on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays where Mondays and Thursdays we do more workouts like we do on Tuesday and Saturday. We do yoga, to kind of kickstart that weekend.

Russ Johns 8:42
Oh, nice.

Angela Han 8:43
Yeah. That membership, I just launched it, but about a little over a month ago. I have some founding members and they're giving me feedback, and I'm going to relaunch it shortly in a few weeks so that we have that more sense of accountability where Oh, I'm Paying for this so I gotta actually attend.

Russ Johns 9:02
Yeah

Angela Han 9:03
Have some ideas brewing with accountability and gamification, so that like, we have like a little leaderboard and everything.

Russ Johns 9:14
It's all virtual. I mean, everybody's in their home gym doing their own thing or whatever exercise is being involved in the group. How did you think about this? How did you decide to to create these groups and on lines and you're also a podcaster, which I'll get into a little bit so. Being an attorney, a corporate attorney in the healthcare industry is like that. There seems to be like, what's the connection or was there a connection or is just something that Angela says, Hey, I'm just gonna create an online group.

Angela Han 9:52
Um, well I was realizing on LinkedIn that we were networking more than ever than before. Um, before the the Pandemic and then make Yeah. Then we were doing on meetups talking to each other, just basic kind of meeting and talking. For me, I always found it very useful beyond just talking and meeting each other to have like a task based networking opportunity where we're doing something together. I thought, like, okay, like I was saying earlier, it just, we're all just so cooped up in our homes and I just wanted to do something about that. I think it just kind of came from a place of what can I do to solve this problem?

Russ Johns 10:46
Yeah, yeah. Well, and that's usually the seed is planted every time somebody creates something new is right. Okay. I want to do this for myself. There probably a few other people that want to do it for themselves as well. Right,

Angela Han 11:01
right. Yeah.

Russ Johns 11:02
It's just like #thepiratecommunity we're all out there and if you're not connected Angeles tell them Ross sent you and you're a pirate now. So congratulations on being a pirate and #thepiratecommunity is very active and there's a lot of people involved and they have conversations inside the group and we actually connect on a regular basis and I reach out and, and try to keep everybody updated on what's going on. It's really kind of exciting to think that we can do this whereas 10 years ago, it wasn't nearly as easy it wasn't as functional your slack didn't exist and these tools that we're using to connect with now and a lot of people are on zoom.

Zooms are really popular one and there's some others out there. Skype has always been out there and, and it's just it's a new way of connecting and I like the idea of You're having to share task based activity. That's important. That's a good idea because I've been in masterminds but and we usually have sprints or something like that will where we'll create something and we'll say, okay, for the next six weeks, we're going to do something. We go about it. Do you have an outline on a program for exercises? Do you set the agenda or is it just that you're in the group together and you're participating together at an activity?

Angela Han 12:37
I'm one I guess, broadcasting hosting the workout.

Russ Johns 12:42
Mm hmm.

Angela Han 12:43
The way it's structured is we have three circuits. The first is legs or cardio, and I have two exercises for that. I guess it's like jumping jacks and squats, for example. Being jacks for 40 seconds and then squats for 40 seconds. Then we do that three times. That's about like six minutes. Then we kind of like take a break in between. Then the second circuit is for arms and so like push ups or with dumbbells, whatever it is minimal equipment. Then finally for abs and at the end, we do a little stretch. It's really like my goal is to make it as easy in terms of like the equipment, and also just like time passing as soon as as quickly as possible so we can kind of get on with the rest of the day.

Russ Johns 13:34
Yeah. Well, everybody's busy and they got, they got things to do. It's really nice to be able to get out and change that daily routine and inject some activity, physical activity and exercise to that.

Angela Han 13:49
Right. Yeah.

Russ Johns 13:50
Let's talk about your podcast. You've been podcasting for a year or so and it's probably made an impact on some of the things the conversations you've had. Some of the dialogue that you're thinking about having in the future. Walk us through that process and we should I know you shared a little bit before we started, but maybe you could share it with the community and let us know how it's impacted your world.

Angela Han 14:17
Yeah, I was struggling in my side hustle business. I was trying to find clients about a little over a year ago. I hired somebody to help with publicity. I was just kind of throwing darts into I don't know what the phrases I was like, Okay, well, maybe if more people get to know me, then they'll buy for me something.

Russ Johns 14:45
Yeah.

Angela Han 14:45
I found somebody on LinkedIn. Then he told me that I need to start a podcast and I said, I mean, I don't really know if I'm really gonna enjoy it. I don't know if I have the authority. I don't know whatever. Just all these doubts and limiting

Russ Johns 14:58
All those doubtful questions. We always ask.

Angela Han 15:01
Exactly Yeah. He was like he kept pushing me and I just started I started I asked for people who just want to share their story kind of like what you're doing just picking people that you think are interesting and then just open to them right online and it went well for a while, but around January or so I almost gave up because I felt like I ran out of guest and I was chasing guests like with email like I was like, following up with them multiple times. Nobody really knew my podcast that much. Then right before my maternity leave, like around March. Like in February ish. I was kind of put out a PS like an announcement thing. Hey, I'm going to maternity leave. Anybody who wants to interview I just want to kind of have a lot of two months worth of content prepared while I'm on leave.

Quite a few people said yes, and They were on my podcasts. Then over the last couple months when those podcasts went out, like I was able to grow my community exponentially, yes especially because it coincided with a pandemic, where people were listening in, and then I got to connect with more people. Then now like, I'm booked until October, and I realized that somebody said, always before breakthrough, there's a breakdown.

Russ Johns 16:31
Yeah.

Angela Han 16:33
It was a good experience. And I'm glad that I'm I'm here today. I'm glad my friend really pushed me to start the podcast overa year agp

Russ Johns 16:40
Yeah. Well, it's so interesting to me that and I'm an advocate for podcasting, and I've taught podcasting and help get lots of podcasts out there. You do have to have some interest in the project. process because sometimes you'll get up and you're like, I don't feel like it that much. I've been doing this every day, five days a week for not even a year and I got 200 podcasts and 200 episodes in the #piratebroadcast now.

Angela Han 16:42
Wow

Russ Johns 16:42
Also, it really brings me joy it's like I get to talk to amazing people like yourself. It's one of these things that I just find fascinating about how people got to where they got to what they're doing and where they're going and kind of the journey to give other people some hope and inspiration that holy cow, I never thought of it that way. Those little nuggets of knowledge that we can share with others. It's like, sometimes you have a breakdown. Sometimes you have a breakthrough, but keep on going. There's probably some conversation That you've had that are amazing conversations and friends you've made and and that's the thing. That's really the benefit that I've seen. Have you found that to be true?

Angela Han 18:10
Oh, yeah, hundred percent, like the most like the deepest connections that I currently have are the ones that signed up like right before my maternity leave. One of them, she sent me a little she knitted a baby hat herself in the military. I just had her as a guest. Once on the podcast, and now we're like lifelong friends.

Russ Johns 18:35
Yeah,

Angela Han 18:36
It's crazy.

Russ Johns 18:38
It's crazy. I don't know about you, however, the healthcare industry is really, I mean, there's lots of challenges in the healthcare industry overall whether it be over being overwhelmed or not being able to do standard care. They have been for revenue generation or all of these things and conditions. I see a lot of stress in the industry. Do you see the same thing in your podcasting in your conversations as in the just community in general? I mean, what are your thoughts on that?

Angela Han 19:23
Like stress, like individual stress?

Russ Johns 19:26
Yeah, I mean, just people are getting worn down from not knowing what's taking place in the future and just kind of like, there's two camps. It's like, okay, here's a wide open opportunity to do something different because I'm at home, I can change I can learn something new. I could create a podcast I can meet nor more people, like get on a zoom session. Then the other people are, there's another camp that I see. forming. It's like, when's this gonna stop? I'm tired of it. It's like going outside I want to be normal again.

Angela Han 19:59
Yeah.

Russ Johns 20:00
I just wondered how the healthcare industry and the attorneys, and how that is forming, I guess from a just a general perspective, observation was,

Angela Han 20:12
yeah like as part of it, I thought it put us under a lot of stress. I'm very proud of the company that I work for. What I'm seeing is that everybody is just trucking along and we're finding solutions to problems. We're looking, we're asking for help if we need help on a legal issue or whatever other issue that we have. We're just kind of going with the flow and learning as we go. In terms of that, like the healthcare industry there. I don't know for me, I'm just grateful that I am part of a company that is like able to manage this. In terms of like, just as a health coach I'm working with other lawyers who are, who might be undergoing other types of stress mentally, physically, professionally.

Again, like I'm also surrounded by people who are taking that initiative to be part of a community. Even if personally, this whole challenge might be a struggle, we are coming together as a community and talking about it and working on it together, talking about our mental health issues, working out together and talking about our professional challenges to some that we are supporting each other. For me, yes, there's generally a lot of stress. I think that when you put out positive energy and positive vibes, then you attract the right people, and then you have the right conversations.

Russ Johns 21:48
Yeah, I applaud you on that effort. Because mental health right now is gonna be so important to monitor and maintain and make sure that we we stay positive If we maintain a positive outlook, and also creativity, it's like we're gonna have to come up with some solutions that may not necessarily be what we were used to having in the past. Right?

Angela Han 22:13
Yeah.

Russ Johns 22:14
It's amazing. I want to give a shout out to somebody, a couple of people in the in the group and say hello, we got people in the Nicole. Good morning. How are you? Kon? I have a good, good thing. attorneys and doctors aren't competitive. Okay, pirates. Good morning. Russ Johns. Angela. Thank you so much for coming. Khan is an amazing resource that you need to know. So it's

Angela Han 22:45
Awesome.

Russ Johns 22:47
As long Good evening from Egypt. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate that. And Good evening from India. We got India. We've got tonigh Good evening from tonigh Holy cow, and we've got Emily. Emily's here. Got Angela is a pirate. Yes Angela is a pirate. Good morning Angie, how are you doing? Yes, everyone here as a pirate then Ahoy. So Khan says great nuggets. Always before a breakthrough. There's a breakdown. so fantastic. And Randy Randy McNeely. He's He's advocate for kindness. He's always out there spreading kind words out there. And so, great interview. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Randy.

One of the things that I'm always fascinated about Angela is the idea that you know, there's a lot of things we can do. A lot of things we need to focus on, on your journey, you know, coming from, you know, another country coming in going to college. I mean, Boston is. I really enjoy Boston. I used to live up there in Stoneham. I work in Stoneham.

There's all these elements and diversity that we run into in this idea that there's only one outcome is just really kind of short sighted. And there's, there's so many things that we can do with with tools like slack and being virtual. And where do you see yourself building into with this virtual community in this exercise and this healthcare and the attorneys? Where do you see yourself in 12 to 18 months based on what you're doing today?

Angela Han 24:48
That's a great question. 12 18 months. I see myself still just enjoying being a lawyer and the biggest reason I enjoy Being a lawyer is because of my boss. And he's just a phenomenal person to be around to work for. If it weren't for his kindness and generosity I wouldn't be able to be active on LinkedIn. I see a lot of lawyers feeling like they're not able to really be vocal and about the things that they care about just out of fear that it might be inconsistent with our company's values or their firm's values or anything like that. Right? For me, I'm able to do it because my values are aligned with my boss's values and just being who you are speaking up for whatever you care about.

In 12 to 18 months, I envisioned myself being in my job hopefully, and also being part of a community that really supports me now. My goal will always be to support other lawyers mentally, physically and professionally in their health. So right now, we are working on Our mental and physical health with like the workouts and the podcast angle that I'm kind of like working towards right now is the professional health aspect. And my definition of professional health is like, it's not just finding a job that you love, but working on something that you love with the people that you love.

For me, that meant beyond my nine to five creating a business like this with other lawyers with lawyers that I love. And so I want to help other lawyers also do the same thing start their own side hustle because, again, we are we feel kind of restrained in what we can do with a conflict of interest and the risks involved and doing for yourself. And so I want to support other lawyers professionally, who want to start their own thing outside of their nine to five without being fearful of the repercussions.

Russ Johns 26:56
Yeah, it would I mean, I, my background is so diverse, I can't imagine being constrained to some guidelines like that, you know, there's a lot of industries the financial industry attorneys, doctors they're constrained by certain parameters guidelines. It's nice to be able to have something that you can have on the side and, and fulfill you the creativity, and the creative element in your life, and be able to give back to the community. That's so important. I think that's really important for people to have an opportunity to give back to the community. Hats off to you. I just really appreciate the fact that you're here doing this and sharing that any knowledge that you want to share #nuggetsofknowledge that you've learned along your journey that words of wisdom and your legacy that you want to leave with us today?

Angela Han 27:59
I think For me, when in doubt, I always lift another person up. Whenever I feel afraid of saying the wrong thing, or whenever I feel afraid of doing the wrong one, I always go back to is this going to lift somebody up? If the answer is worth, I go ahead and do it. No, if it's gonna hurt somebody, or if it's gonna hurt myself, then I then it's a clear clear, no. So that has been kind of my guiding principle. I don't know if that's helpful.

Russ Johns 28:32
No, that is incredibly helpful. In fact, it reminds me of the, you know, the idea in the concept that it's difficult to be depressed when you're helping somebody else.

Angela Han 28:44
Yes.

Russ Johns 28:45
You kind of have to you share the joy, you know, it's like #smilesarefree, you give one away and the next thing you know, you get one back and there's nobody's losing. It's like, it's like simple. It's a simple math equation. Give it away and they'll come back to you all the time. So thank you so much for being here. Angela. I really appreciate it. And if you're not connected to Angela connect with her on LinkedIn is probably the best place to make the connection.

Angela Han 29:16
Yes.

Russ Johns 29:17
So connect with Angela on LinkedIn, and all of the things we're streaming live Angela to Facebook, YouTube, Periscope and LinkedIn. So there's a few people out there that will catch up with you eventually. And then also at the end of the day, I'll rebroadcast in the morning and we have a podcast in the afternoon so the podcast will be up and everything will be in place it at tarus John's calm so it's a Friday we get to have another break and you got any big plans for the weekend.

Angela Han 29:54
Oh boy, I don't know Iam going to I guess just enjoy my time with My daughter.

Russ Johns 30:02
Wonderful. Enjoy them. They grow up really quickly. So well thank you so much for being here. We're out of time. And as always Everyone, please remember that #kindnessiscool. #smilesarefree. We want you to #enjoytheday. Take care. Thanks, Angela.

Angela Han 30:25
Bye, bye.

Russ Johns 30:27
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