HUMMUS TIME With Stephen Shaya, M.D.

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Show. I want to give a big shout out to the 150,000 downloads and

listeners and audience we have. I'm so grateful for you that you

are listening and learning and making the world a better place.

We are going to do that today. I have a dear friend of mine, like

a big brother like a mentor, Stephen Shaya.

How are ya.

so glad all the way from San Diego today? So

he's buying we're bicoastal. So it's amazing. I moved to

Michigan from Silicon Valley in about 2005. And somewhere in

2005, and six, I met Steven, and he's just such a person that I

admire. He does so much good in this world. And we're going to

talk about that today. So Stephen, let me just brag about

you if you'll give me that honor. And I know you're very

humble and you hate this, but bear with me for a minute okay?

Stephen Shaya MD is an executive servant leader. I love that a

Jambi medical global healthcare solutions company founded in

1996 by his family. In your role, you oversee all the

strategy and innovation and growth of the family companies.

And under your guidance, Jambi has started 18 different

business enterprises and has customers around the world. This

is incredible. In addition to your role at JMP, you're an

active representative in the family office called Akkad

holdings. And you invest in health care platforms, and

you're trying to actually make a difference in global

distribution channels. It's quite amazing. You have a lot of

board appointments, I'll name a few American Diabetes

Association of Michigan citizens RX and endeavor. You have a

whole bunch of awards that you've been awarded for the

great example and the work that you do, Steve, and I'll just

mentioned two of them. The Vatican pontifical Hero Award

and the presidential leadership award. Unbelievable. Yeah, as we

say in Judaism, it's a match your match. Lastly, you're an

advocate for innovative solutions to improve the human

health globally. And you delivered a talk about at the

World Expo in Dubai, we're going to get into that a little bit.

You spoke about how to reimagine the global medical supply chain,

which at times has been broken as healthcare. But your

commitment to driving progress in healthcare is matched by your

leadership and your management, making the world a better place.

I'm so thrilled to have you here and excited to chop it up a

little bit with you. But before we do that, tell me something

that people may not know about you different that you want to

share.

One thing that very few of anyone knows is

before I went into the medical field, I was considering

becoming a priest, which I now my mother, my mother laughs that

now she probably you know, she she kind of teases me about it.

Because I probably need to go to confession on a daily basis for

for all the activities. But no, I think God made me an

evangelist at heart. Somehow I ended up in the medical arena,

but that's something that very few of anyone knows.

Well, thank you for sharing that. And also

people don't you know exactly, you know, your, your Iraqi

Christian, as we know Cal Dean from California, and it's a very

special group of folks and a lot in Southern California a lot in

Michigan. And, you know, I play basketball with a bunch of

Chaldean guys all the time and Jewish and Chaldeans. We're

brothers from different mothers. And it's just a beautiful thing.

So tell us a little bit about your background. Because, you

know, before you got into some of this, you were even

delivering babies. So tell us about you know, a little bit

about your background.

So, my mother and father immigrated from Iraq. My

mother was one of 12 children. When number 12 was in utero, my

maternal grandfather passed away in a freak accident. So my

maternal grandmother deliver, she took care of 12 children all

on her own. And I gotta tell you, Howard, I have three

children. So someone having 12 is, is just mind numbing to me,

someone wants said to me, seven takes you to have it. I don't

know what 12 takes you to but probably someplace good to

support the family. She was a midwife, and she delivered 1000s

and 1000s of babies and to support the family and because

they didn't have a hospital nearby, and it was pretty

interesting because a lot of the folks didn't have means and she

would barter with them. She'd deliver their child and they'd

give her basket of food or they provide some service. But it

didn't matter if you were Christian or Jewish. Muslim or

what faith. She showed great love to all. And it is kind of

surreal when I run into folks say hey, you know your

grandmother delivered me. So that was kind of a little bit of

a surreal surreal thing. She brought all 12 children to the

US, literally, they had everything they owned on them,

they sold all their possessions, and they bought gold. And they

put all the they had each one of them are securing a gold

bracelet when they came to the US. So they literally some

people say you have you know, something on your back, they had

every thing that they they own materially was was on the wrist.

But one thing I remember my my grandmother, she had a servant's

heart. She got so much joy Howard from giving. And, and she

didn't have much materially but the richness that she had

powered from giving from serving is something that left left an

indelible mark on me. My father, my late father, was the same he

came from a very large family, he came to the US under duress,

political challenges. He got off the plane, he got four jobs. He

worked while he went to University of Michigan. So I

grew up in a family that we didn't have much materially, but

we were rich and family. We were rich and spirit and we're rich

where it mattered. And in so going into medicine, was kind of

an extension of both my grandmother and my father's. He

went to Michigan, he became a physician. And then he opened

his own medical lab and, and my grandmother, of course,

delivering babies. So it kind of you know, they were both cut

from the same cloth. They had that Servant's Heart servant

leadership, and I decided to go into medicine, graduated from

Wayne State Medical School in 1996. And went to work with my

father in a place called Jean de medical, he had just sold his

medical lab. And he was retired for about five weeks. And my

mother said, you know, you probably need to go do

something. So he couldn't get back into the lab business. She

basically kicked him out of the house. That's the the kind of

the real scoop, you can you can catch it a little differently.

But so he couldn't get back in the lamp business because a non

compete so he started this company called gene B. Now

people ask me all the time, well, what is J B stand for? I

was in Kentucky a few years ago, and I said I'm with J B. And

everyone got excited. They thought were the scotch whiskey

and unfortunately, we're not that good. But j stands for my

brother Julian who had a health issue when he was younger, and

he was miraculously treated. And then one of my uncle's in my

grandfather were named Bashir. My middle name is Bashir. So my

dad just said JB, and it's funny over the years, Howard, many

people have come in and said, Well, maybe we should change the

name. And you know, my late father always be like, I've

never changing that it has a lot of sentimental meaning, even

though it sounds very simple to us. And today, we have different

business enterprises globally. And, and it's been it's been an

incredible, incredible journey, if you don't believe in miracles

come to j and b.

Yeah, it's what a great story, the immigrant

story, the hard work, but the love from the family and the

passion. And that drove you to become going into medicine as

well. And you have delivered some babies, right. And you do

have delivered about 100 babies in my career as

a family practice physician. You spent a lot of time delivering

babies. For the record, I didn't deliver my three children 11,

nine and seven, probably for very, very good reason.

I know it. Well, let's step into some of your

travels, one of your passions is to travel and experience the

world as it is. So take me through some travels. Where do

you want to start?

Wow, that's a loaded question. So let's start

with in 2016. We, my family and I went to the Vatican. And for

those of you that haven't been to the Vatican, it is an

extraordinary place. It is the smallest country in the world a

little factoid. Another factoid is it's got the highest crime

rate in the world. You wouldn't think of that in the Vatican,

but they only have 1000 people that live there. So it is, you

know, percentage wise, it's got the highest crime rate, which I

always find comical. The other thing about the Vatican is that

it has got the most consumption of wine per capita in the world.

Again, they only have 1000 people that actually are

citizens there so it's a little skewed but going there as Seeing

the Sistine Chapel, seeing, you know, the just the divine

brilliance of Michelangelo. It's it's incredible in the Sistine

Chapel, we had a chance to see edge who's part of YouTube and

his father had just died. And he was the first contemporary

artists who play in the Sistine Chapel. And it literally brought

tears to my eyes. He was doing an homage to his father and I

met him and oh my gosh, he was just incredible. And I'm a big

YouTube fan. So that was special. We also had the

opportunity and privilege to meet Pope Francis. And that day,

my son, Grayson got kissed by Pope Francis, and also got

kissed by then Vice President Biden that exact same day so

it's a Mount Rushmore for something. I don't know what but

grace is certainly, you know, very fortunate lucky. Gavin was

named his namesake is Pope Francis. So it's Gavin Francis

Shi'a. And so, it was quite an amazing trip. We met people from

around the world, the biggest of the big and it didn't matter

what religion what race what you did, it's the Vatican is a very

special place somehow, some way. Everyone kind of put their egos

at the door even just for a couple hours and and you felt

you were part of something bigger than yourself. So that's

kind of one trip that I'll never forget. And we're currently

working with the Vatican on on many initiatives. So it's, it's

been very special Catholic Church has a lot of issues. But

nobody houses close feeds, educates reverberate provides

more health care globally in the Catholic Church. So something

that gets lost and stuff. So so that was, that was definitely

one, I think, very special trip.

receivers. Why you why you wait, why you think of

that I actually have been to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel.

But I went in the Jubilee Year of 2000, they cleaned the place

up like crazy, it was unbelievable. I got to go to

Israel, and then on to Italy, and like all over Italy, but I

really enjoyed it. It's really a tremendous that just the art in

itself, but just the presence, the feeling. It was incredible.

I will tell you that so I didn't get to meet the Pope. But I

still the feeling was just incredible. So I'm so glad you

shared that what what else you want to share, show

another trip that I think was memorable, because I

the trips that are memorable are always with the families and,

and someone told me once he's like, you know, my children

didn't remember anything. I bought them. They didn't

remember a whole lot of what I did for him, but but they

remember the family trips. So that's something you know, as I

was having children, my children, our 11, nine and seven

kind of, I always remembered, so we went to Lake Nona a couple

years ago, I believe it was 2022 now, and and we got a chance to

meet a bunch of a bunch of very interesting people. Of course,

if you haven't been to Lake Nona, it is unbelievable.

They're building like the city of the future. Some of the folks

that we had an opportunity to meet were number one, Deepak

Chopra, and I had never actually spent time with him, I had a

chance to, to spend time with him, my whole family meditated

with him. And just an amazing, inspiring person, so humble, you

know, somebody that that, you know, just incredible, like how

he can bring people together, he has a very calming presence

about him. And he really opened my eyes to, you know, we look at

everyone looks at things in certain lens. And, you know, the

way that you know, his his tapping into, you know, higher

energies, higher frequencies, spirituality. I mean, it's just,

it was so inspiring. And I still have a really cute picture of my

kids meditating with Deepak, and it's something, something that

I'll never forget. And, and then on that same trip, we also had

the opportunity to meet Bill Clinton. And that was the day

I'll never forget, because that was the same day that a bill

that Russia invaded Ukraine. And not only do we have a chance to

meet Bill Clinton, but to listen to the guys speak for over an

hour from no notes, no teleprompter. I have to tell you

how we're regardless of any, you know, political lens, just

hearing someone with such depth of knowledge. You know, was was,

I was like, wow, this is like, you know, when you look at

leaders, you're like, you know, you want someone like him at the

helm. Whether it's a company or a country or I mean, he was just

really, really inspiring. And then another one more recently

was last May. I personally had a chance to go to the Milken

global conference I'd never been, I'd become very good

friends with Michael Milken. But to see that guy in action to

see, I mean, talk about one of the quintessential dealmakers of

our time to see the amount of people that he brought in, a lot

of people don't know, the 78 people that worked with Michael

Milken are not billionaires, you know, to see a guy, you know,

obviously, everyone knows he had, you know, issues as well.

And to see him pivot from that, and to see what he's done. And

to see this global ecosystem, where they're, they're taking on

some of the most daunting challenges of our time. I mean,

talk about humbling, talk about inspiring, just tell you a quick

story about that. I'm walking in to the conference on Sunday, and

he's got like, 30 people around him, and I'm walking, just

getting there going to register, and he sees me and he comes and

gives me a hug. He's like, Shi'a, what, what the hell are

you doing, you're supposed to be in this lecture right now. Like,

oh, my gosh, the guy has 1000s of people 1000s 1000s of people

to egg somehow he knew where I was supposed to be at two

o'clock Sunday afternoon, it was mind numbing, I just literally

floored me, but you know, he just someone I admire immensely,

and, and what he put together to bring people together, which in

our time, in our very complicated world these days,

you know, you know, to bring people together and to talk,

and, and, you know, you know, talk about ways that we can

elevate humanity. You know, Michael is very inspiring to me.

For for everything he's done, so that, that three of many, many,

many.

So one of the things that I admire is that

when you meet people, you actually are learning about

them. And they're human. All right, they've all fall down, we

all get back up again, right? We're not perfect. We are human,

we make mistakes. And what would you say that the qualities of

good people and good leaders are, you've met so many.

So something that's very important to me

today is authenticity. I think when you find somebody that

really is coming from the right place, really doing something

that's in their DNA, it's kind of, you know, something that God

has meant him to do. I think it's, you can tell and, and, you

know, it's inspiring. Someone once said to me, if you chase

your passion, you find your purpose. And those people, those

people that that chase their passion, find their purpose. I

think, you know, when you find it, and one thing, you know,

lesson learned with that life's not easy. As you know, Howard,

look at all the things challenges you've had to who to

face and, but when you find your passion, and those tough moments

come, you know, you can weather the storm, whether it's a

business, whether it's a relationship, you know, you

know, whatever it may be, and if you're not passionate, you know

about something, you know, or someone or when those tough

moments come, they'll crumble. So I think that's really

important, it's part of your journey is to really, you know,

find your purpose and, and I end for me, you know, it's been

making healthcare affordable, and accessible to as many people

globally as we can, that's, that's what God meant me to do.

It manifests in the opportunity to meet a lot of folks and

travel a lot of places and do many things. But the core of it

is when you provide access to affordable accessible health

care to as many people as you can be put the care back in

health care, you put the human back in humanity and so I it

took me a while to kind of figure that out. But once I have

it really has taken myself and everything my family does and

everything our company does to a whole nother level. So I think

those purpose driven people and companies and organizations,

they will be ready for whatever the world throws at them.

We love it the human back in humanity the care

back in health care. You're a man on a mission and you know

we're the shining brightly movement is with you and

together that's what we want to do. We want to lift up others

First of all, you got to lift up yourself, but lift up others and

make the world a better place. And we can do that we can do it

together it there are people in need all over the place,

including, you know, right here in our own backyard and Michigan

and in the United States and things like that. So, I believe,

what are the big things that you're looking forward to? You

know, now that we're through the pandemic, and we're getting back

to some normalcy? What are some of the big things that you want

to accomplish coming forward?

So with our company, I will start there,

because that's a big part of our life, we've been on this

journey, a journey of transformation from kind of a

products company, to one of the preeminent companies providing

products and services to patients in the homes, to to a

population health company. So measure managing and optimizing

large populations of folks around the globe, and doing it

in a very unique way. So for example, one thing that we found

is working with minorities and working with underserved

underprivileged folks and training them to take care of

their own, you get better outcomes. And and you really

start breaking the cycle. So there's a lot of medical data

that shows that underserved populations when taken care of

by their own folks, they do much better. So the we're, I'm in

development, and we're leveraging technology and

innovation, I'll say gene B 2.0, or jnb. Three point, point O is

really our most important attributes from a business

perspective, our, our, our data or our technology, AI. And so

we've really taken the home health arena, from a proverbial

eight track tape to a proverbial iPhone. So you know, we're very

proud of taking this antiquated marketplace, and really

modernizing it. But ultimately, Howard, at the end of the day,

it's all about people. It's all about trust. And so people say

What's your most valuable asset, and I always say, it's our

relationships. And there's the five ships relationship,

fellowship, friendship, partnership, discipleship, and

we have a partnership discipleship level relationship

with a lot of key people. I was at an event recently hosted by

Lucas Walton, you know, his family started Walmart, and he

said something to me, that's just been, you know, I think

about every day he's like, you know, Steven, you know, change,

elevating humanity moves at the speed of trust. And I was like,

Wow, it's so true. Because at the end of the day, that human

element is so important. And I'm actually listening to a book now

from Stephen Covey moving at the speed of trust. And it just,

it's, we can never lose that personal element. And that's

something today, Howard, that's lacking. You know, everyone

wants to do the deal. So many things are so transactional in

our world today. But don't people don't focus on building

trust. They don't focus on that. And, and I think that that is

something that is needed. You know, the more trust you have,

the faster you can go. So that's why moving at the speed of

trust, it just, it's something that's been I've been thinking

about every day, since since Lucas told me about this over a

month ago and something I wanted. Yeah.

You went so fast. Give me the partnership.

discipleship. Give me the five ships.

Oh, okay. friendship, fellowship.

Partnership. We friendship, fellowship, partnership,

discipleship.

I love it. I love it. Thank you, when so fast, I

know, the audience needs to hear it and i Repeating It's okay.

Well now. So I again, I want you to put on your sunglasses for me

here because we have to shine brightly together. Because this

show is really just a tease about you. And all you do and

all the good work of the family office and JB medical, so we're

gonna shine brightly and put the spotlight on you, Steven, tell

people how they should best get a hold of you, and then share

some wisdom and some inspiration as we close out the show.

So to get a hold of me, if you use LinkedIn, you

can you can send me an invite to Stephen Shaya MD and that's Ste

pH en Shaya MD. Or you can follow me at my family office

Akkad holdings akk ad holdings were Iraqi Christians. And the

kidding Empire was the first empire in Mesopotamia and they

were the great connectors of their time. So that's how we

that's how we came up with that name. So LinkedIn is a very good

way. If you use Instagram, it's a at Dr. Swamy, which is, which

is Swami was my nickname and all through my, my schooling years

long story for a different day. And then of course, we also have

Akkad holdings on on, you know, all the all the different you

can just go to Akkad holdings and follow us whether it's on

Instagram or Facebook or, or whatever, whatever sites there

but again, you know the words of wisdom, I just want to just go

back again, chase your passion to find your purpose, find out

what really gets you energized, what gets you excited, you know,

you know, it's not about making money i To me, it's about

finding that thing, you know, that divine, you know, tapping

into that divine DNA and, and in and seeing what, what, what

really can, you know, energize you every day. And I think if

you find that you can you can park the Red Sea, and I really

believe that and, and I hope everyone does. I welcome any

conversations with anyone. And and, you know, the other thing

is, you know, if you look in the world, it's easy to you know,

find negative negative things in the world, you know, looking the

good and people looking the good in situations, nobody's perfect.

And we're all divine beings on a human journey. And we've got to

remember that we're all kind of going through our own journey,

our own challenges. And, and I think at the end of the day, if

we search for good, we'll find it and if you search for

something else, that's what you're gonna find. So

wow, I gotta take my glasses off. And thank you so

much for, as you'd like to say sharing some homeless today we

shared homeless, it's we I love doing that with you. So I'm

going to close out the show. You've been listening and

watching the shining, brightly, podcast show. Thank you. Again,

I want to shout out to the people that make me look great,

which is financial publishing. Read the spirit magazine every

Monday going out to over 50,000 My amplify you is my podcast

house. They're amazing. And diamond moments magazine, that

is teachers we every week, I'm sorry every month, but just a

great show. Thank you, Steven, I look forward to making hummus

with you in the future and just Godspeed to you and your family

and all that you're doing to make the world a better place.

And remember, if we choose to shine brightly, we become a

force multiplier for good and positive change in this world.

You can do it. Come join Stephen and I thank you