After suffering burnout early on as a corporate M&A lawyer, Eric Ho (1994) chose to prioritise his health. He applied the principles of Functional Health, which allowed him to experience success that felt authentic for the rest of his legal career. He also retrained as a Functional Health Coach and founded Bumblebee Wellbeing to help other busy leaders lead effortlessly too.
As a Functional Health Coach, my role is part educator, part change-agent. I impart unconventional knowledge that creates a strong foundation for authentic success, and I help individuals and teams overcome the barriers to the change they seek.
The irony about the people I work with is that they are fantastic problem solvers, and yet often what they want for themselves eludes them. Sometimes these are straightforward goals: changing careers, reducing stress or getting better sleep. Other goals are more abstract: knowing how to manage conflict, coping with pressure or providing direction and motivating others. All of these are profoundly impacted by unconventional factors, like our gut health, the quality of light our mitochondria are exposed to, and what we are eating.
In a typical week, I’ll hold online webinars for organisations so their staff can incorporate simple changes that transform their health and wellbeing. I might run group coaching sessions for high-performing leaders to build the ‘HERO’ traits that enable them to experience their own authentic, effortless success. These are the positive psychology traits that help individuals navigate challenging situations: Hope, (self-) Efficacy, Resilience and (realistic) Optimism.
Often I see smart people diving straight in to solve the problem rather than pausing and noticing what’s going on inside themselves.
I mostly work with professionals, but not exclusively. I also collaborate with licensed practitioners (MDs, GPs and consultants) whose focus is on brain health and on patients with neurodegenerative conditions. What I continue to discover is how simple lifestyle changes can help these patients – as well as the leaders and professionals that I coach – have healthy brains.
At the moment, I’m working with colleagues to create a community of leaders who want to learn how to lead with ease by establishing health and wellbeing as their foundation. Leadership can be lonely at the top, and there is incredible power in connecting with like-minded peers.
We are living in challenging times, and the best advice I can give right now is to be aware. Often I see smart people diving straight in to solve the problem rather than pausing and noticing what’s going on inside themselves. Yet I know from the people I coach that change starts from a shift in awareness. It could be one single insight. If we are curious and mindful of what is happening with our emotions and physical state, we will build a powerful foundation for change.
You can get in touch with Eric via his Bumblebee Wellbeing website or by email: eric.ho@bumblebeewellbeing.com
