Jaime Hartman (00:04):
Welcome to the AIP Summit Podcast, your go-to resource for taking control of your autoimmune health, presented by AIP Certified Coaches. Hi, I'm Jaime Hartman, and along with my co-host Marie-Noelle Marquis, we aim to equip you with the tools, knowledge and support you need to effectively use the Autoimmune Protocol. Today I am coming to you with a special solo episode to tell you all about an exciting free educational event presented by our colleagues to kick off 2025. In this special bonus episode, I want to talk about the what, the when, the who, and the why of the AIP Summit overall and of the event that is happening next week. So first I want to tell you the what and the why by briefly explaining the history of the AIP Summit. The genesis of the AIP Summit came to me in 2019 after I had been practicing as an AIP Certified Coach for about two years.
(01:06):
I had a very busy practice. I was primarily working with people one-on-one, and I was finding myself frustrated by how many people came to me with a lot of knowledge about AIP that was incorrect. Basically, they had bad information about AIP, and at the same time in my personal life, I would meet people socially or through other connections and tell them what I was doing with my business, and they didn't know anything about AIP and many of them had autoimmune diseases themselves. So I realized that we were in a situation where a lot of people in the general public didn't know anything about AIP, and the people who did have some knowledge about AIP didn't have great knowledge about AIP and I was trying to work with these people one-on-one, realizing I was never going to get anywhere if I just kept thinking about one person at a time.
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So I wanted to find a way that I could get that word out and to reach more people, and I had the idea right away that collaboration really could be the key. And that comes from my history, having realized as a blogger when I was an IP blogger, that while we might have thought of ourselves as being in competition with each other, we actually could do more. If we worked together, we could accomplish more. We could lift all of our voices up, which would help us spread the word more and help each of us individually. Then I'd participated in several community cookbook projects with other bloggers. So in 2019 when I was starting to think about ways that I could create something like that with this community of AIP Certified Coaches, it was challenging because bloggers were all doing something similar by creating recipes that we could publish together.
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But coaches were all using AIP in their own little silos, in their own practices, and their practices were really different. Some of them were nutritionists, others were health coaches, and others were even medical professionals from across the holistic and conventional spectrum with very different areas of expertise. Then it occurred to me that all of these differences were actually an opportunity because each of those participating practitioners, those participating AIP Certified Coaches could create something like a presentation on their own that would showcase the unique perspective or knowledge that they had, and then I could just stitch them together for some kind of a broadcast or some kind of a gathering. And that's where the idea of hosting an online event was born, and we decided to call it The 2020 AIP Summit as we were preparing for it in 2019, kind of thinking that it might just be a one-time thing, so why not put the year right in the name of it?
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And we recouped our expenses that year by selling the recordings and also by allowing businesses to sponsor the broadcast or inviting businesses to sponsor the broadcast. So that The 2020 AIP Summit was a really big success, and after the pandemic hit that year, it was clear that the need for reliable information that people could access from their homes was just growing, was even greater. So we had another event like that first one in 2021. Again, the participating coaches prerecorded their sessions, and again, we sold recordings and we had sponsors. By now, it was becoming clear that there was also a hunger for information year round. So we started also having monthly webinars, and in addition to the annual events in 2023, we started to recognize that the model that we had been using to cover our expenses just wasn't working anymore. Businesses who had supported us in the past were like many of us being impacted by inflation, supply chain issues, and their costs were rising and they were having to turn their budgets, and at the same time, more people than ever were tuning into our summits and our webinars, but fewer and fewer actually wanted to purchase the recordings to keep on their own devices and their own records and their own files, which totally makes sense to me.
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We moved from this era where we used to buy, we actually used to buy things on physical media and then maybe downloads you'd purchase like an MP3 or an audiobook to really moving fully into an era where we want to stream everything. So it made sense to me that this was something people didn't really have any need to buy and keep forever anymore. So we're in a conundrum there. How are we going to continue to cover our expenses so we can keep creating this great information? In 2023, we hosted a fundraising drive. A lot of people listening to this probably contributed, which I thank you if you're one of them. That helped us then to cover our expenses as we transition into what we have now, which is a community membership model, and that allows us to have ongoing funding, but at the same time continuing to offer some free resources.
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So again, that's where we are today. We are proud to be members supported. We don't need to rely on those business sponsorships. Another big change that has happened since the inception of the AIP Summit back in 2019 is that the presentations are now live instead of being prerecorded, which allows for a more meaningful experience that can include some interactivity and some answering of questions in real time. We still record the sessions though, so that if your schedule doesn't work out, you can watch them later because we're able not to host them in sort of a streaming model, and you can watch them on demand. All of those changes have happened over the course of these last five years. But what hasn't changed is our mission, which is to provide information about the Autoimmune Protocol and to provide it directly from the practitioners who have been trained as AIP Certified Coaches, so that you know that the information is accurate and reliable.
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We also continue to have the mission of lowering barriers to access that information. So that means that there continues to be a free option, and that if you do want to become a member to support us and to get access to the archives and to stream sessions that you weren't able to attend live, we've kept that price point as low as we possibly can, and flexible so that you can join and you can cancel any time if it doesn't suit your needs any longer. Members, as I mentioned, get access to the archives going all the way back to 2019 and other exclusive benefits, which I won't go through now. You can go to our website and learn about them by clicking on the button that says, learn about the membership. Okay, so all of that was a preamble to tell you about what's happening next week.
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The Sixth Annual AIP Summit. It's spread over five days, Monday through Friday. On the first day, we have a great lineup, including Becca Benning, a health coach from the UK who's going to be presenting a talk on AIP is a gentle act of self-care. After that, Melanie Snyder, also a health coach, but from the United States, will share a presentation entitled AIP Beyond the Plate, integrating Lifestyle Choices. Then you have a treat after that. Cecile Ribouleau is a naturopath and a pharmacist from France, and she's going to teach us about essential oils to support the AIP. Same day, Laurane Chemenda, a functional nutritional therapy practitioner, will share five budget friendly and simple steps for gut health. Alison Whitwood, a board certified health coach, will join us from her home base in Sydney, Australia with a session on deep relaxation for a healthier gut.
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And then finally, on that first day, Katie Erba, who is a nutritional therapy practitioner who also has a master's degree in pastoral care and counseling, will speak on the spiritual implications of an autoimmune diagnosis. And all of that is just the first day. So I won't go through every single day here. You can tell just by me sharing that first day, there's a ton of information and you can read about it all on our website. A few highlights though, just to give you a few highlights. Day two, there will be a session on getting back on the wagon, which I think is awesome for people who've coming out of the holiday season, maybe indulged more than they wanted to or have been away from self-care and AIP for a while and want to get back. There'll be a session on better sleep lifestyle, important of course, some AIP cooking demonstrations, some of them from people you already know, including my co-host Marie-Noelle, along with her executive chef, and also the subject of our second episode, Mickey Trescott will be demonstrating some recipes.
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Other topics on the remaining days include root cause medicine, glandular therapy, intermittent fasting, meal planning for large families, kind of a cool perspective on that. Another cooking demonstration, recovery strategies for the chronic illness fitness journey, leaky gut and the autoimmune flareup connection, AIP and long covid, bone health and autoimmune conditions, and so much more. So I hope you can tell that by what I've just said, that the AIP Summit truly is for everyone who is living with autoimmunity, whether they're actively following the Autoimmune Protocol or not. Some of the sessions focus on specific common diagnoses, but most are applicable to every diagnosis and also to people who are experiencing symptoms that point to an autoimmune disease, but maybe hasn't been confirmed yet for people who are seeking an autoimmune diagnosis and for people who support them. Now, for those of you who are brand new to AIP or somebody who doesn't know anything about AIP my session, which will be on day three, will be applicable to them.
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But again, the summit as a whole is for all of you beginners and longtime AIP veterans alike. Okay, so finally, let's talk about the when and the where if you are in North America, this begins in the morning on Monday, January 13th. It's 10:00 AM; it'll be at 10:00 AM where I am on the East Coast. The final session on that first day is in the late afternoon, early evening. It's going to be 7:00 PM where I am on the East Coast. So if you go to the website, you can see the dates and the times in your time zone. We definitely have a global audience, so I'm trying to stay away from saying exactly what time things are because it's going to depend on where you are in the world. The sessions are presented live via Zoom webinars, which means that you will have the opportunity to ask questions on the spot if you attend live.
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But again, we recognize the audience is global and people do have busy lives. So all of the sessions are recorded of course, and the recordings will be available for anyone to watch for 24 hours afterwards. So we've got whole day span to figure out what works for your time zone. Then we put those recordings into our archives where those members who help support us can access them anytime. So if you go today to our website, I'll put the link in the show notes, but if you don't have access to that, you can just remember, it's easy to remember. It's aipsummit.com. You can register for the individual sessions you want to attend next week. You can also find the membership information there, and if you happen to be listening to this recording after the summit is all over, that's where you can go to find information about how to get access to these recordings.
(12:29):
And that wraps up everything I wanted to say today about the AIP Summit. As you can tell, I'm really excited about it. This is a big project for me, something I look forward to doing every year, and look forward to sharing with you the exciting and inspiring voices of all of my colleagues, these wonderful AIP Certified Coaches who have so much wisdom to share. As always, remember, AIP is a protocol with multiple branches and multiple ways that can be approached in order to achieve the best results, the AIP Summit, including the annual event, and this podcast is intended to guide you through this process and bring you resources so that while you can do AIP on your own, you don't have to do it alone. I'll be back next week along with Marie-Noelle with our next regular episode where we are committed to helping you use the power of the Autoimmune Protocol to elevate your wellness journey to new heights. The AIP Summit Podcast is a Gutsy By Nature production. Content presented is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
