Turning Epilepsy Into Advocacy and Health Into Success – Exclusive Interview with Stacey Chillemi
Stacey Chillemi is the founder and CEO of Advisor Global Media, a 20-time bestselling author, and the award-winning host of The Advisor with Stacey Chillemi, a health and wellness podcast ranked in the top 0.1% worldwide. Living with epilepsy since childhood, she turned the setback of losing a job after a seizure at work into a mission, testifying before Congress and building a 25-year media career that began at NBC.
In this interview, Stacey shares what hundreds of physicians and wellness experts have taught her, why high achievers so often sacrifice their health without realizing it, and the practical habits that help driven people protect their energy while building ambitious lives.
Stacey Chillemi, Media Founder & Award-Winning Podcaster
How has living with epilepsy shaped the way you think about health, ambition, and resilience today?
I was a child when I learned that my body could change the course of my day without warning. One moment everything was fine. The next, it wasn't. That kind of uncertainty changes you. It teaches you to listen to your body long before most people think they need to.
For years, I carried a quiet fear that people would see my diagnosis before they saw me. So I worked harder. I pushed past exhaustion. I tried to prove, over and over, that I was capable. What I didn't realize was that I was building my ambition on a foundation of fear.
Eventually, I had to face a truth that changed everything. My health was never the obstacle to my dreams. It was the ground they stood on.
Resilience isn't pretending you're fine. It's being honest about the hand you were dealt and choosing to play it anyway.
"It's not the cards you were dealt, it's how you play the hand."
Epilepsy was my hand. Learning to play it with honesty instead of fear made all the difference.
What did your early years at NBC News teach you about communicating health information in a way people can trust and use?
I started at NBC behind the scenes, working alongside the producers who put together the Today Show, Dateline, and News 4 New York. Being in that environment taught me lessons I still use every single day.
The first was clarity. Television doesn't give you time to be vague. If a viewer doesn't understand a health story in the first few seconds, you've lost them. I learned to take complicated information and ask, "What does this mean for the person watching at home?"
The second was accuracy. I watched how carefully the teams checked facts, verified sources, and pushed back when something didn't add up. Trust takes years to build and seconds to lose.
The third was humanity. The stories that stayed with people weren't the ones packed with statistics. They were the ones with a real person at the center. That's why, on my podcast and in my writing, I always connect the science to someone's lived experience. People don't act on information. They act on information they believe applies to them.
After 25 years in media, what separates a genuinely credible health voice from someone who simply has a large platform?
A large platform tells you someone is good at getting attention. It doesn't tell you whether they deserve your trust.
The most credible health voices I know share a few qualities. First, they're honest about what they don't know. Real experts say, "The research isn't settled yet," or, "That depends on the person." Be cautious of anyone who has a confident answer for everything and a product for every problem.
Second, they point you to sources. A credible voice is happy to show you the study, the guideline, or the physician behind the claim. They want you to verify, not just follow.
Third, their message stays consistent over time. Trends come and go, but the fundamentals of health, like sleep, movement, nutrition, stress, and connection, rarely change. Someone who reinvents their advice every few months to chase the algorithm is building a brand, not helping you.
Finally, credible voices care more about your outcome than your attention. After 25 years in media, that's the quality I trust most.
What have leading physicians and wellness experts on The Advisor changed your mind about when it comes to high performance and wellbeing?
The biggest shift has been how I think about rest. Like a lot of high achievers, I used to see rest as something you earn after the work is done. Conversation after conversation with physicians, sleep specialists, and wellness experts changed that completely. Rest isn't a reward. It's part of the work. Your brain consolidates memory, regulates emotion, and recovers during sleep, and almost every expert I've interviewed has said the same thing in different words. You cannot perform at your best on a body that never gets to recover.
I've also changed my mind about intensity. I used to believe that dramatic changes created dramatic results. The experts kept bringing me back to something less exciting but far more powerful. Consistency. Small habits practiced daily outperform extreme routines that last two weeks.
Finally, they taught me that stress isn't just a feeling. It shows up in your sleep, your digestion, your hormones, and your decision-making. Managing stress isn't soft. It's strategic.
Where do you think high achievers most often misunderstand the relationship between productivity and health?
The most common misunderstanding is believing that productivity and health are a trade-off, that to get more done, something has to give, and health is usually the first thing to go.
High achievers are very good at borrowing from tomorrow to pay for today. They skip sleep to finish a project, skip meals to get through meetings, and push through exhaustion because they believe they'll make it up later. The problem is that "later" rarely comes, and the debt keeps growing.
What the research and the experts I interview consistently show is that health is what makes sustained productivity possible. A well-rested brain makes better decisions, focuses longer, and handles stress more effectively. An exhausted one makes more mistakes, takes longer to recover from setbacks, and loses creativity first.
The real question isn't, "How much can I get done today?" It's, "How much can I keep doing for the next ten years?" When you start measuring success over the long term, protecting your health stops looking like a luxury and starts looking like the smartest business decision you can make.
What early signs tell a driven professional that ambition is starting to come at the expense of their wellbeing?
The early signs are usually quiet, which is exactly why driven people miss them. One of the first is sleep. You're exhausted, but you can't fall asleep, or you wake up at 3 a.m. with your mind already running through your to-do list.
Another is irritability. Small things that never bothered you start to feel overwhelming. You snap at people you love or feel impatient with your team.
A third is losing joy in the work itself. The goals that used to excite you start to feel like obligations. You're still achieving, but you're no longer enjoying any of it.
Then there are the physical signals: frequent headaches, getting sick more often, digestive issues, relying on caffeine to start the day, and something else to wind down at night.
My advice is to treat these signs the way you would treat a warning light on your car's dashboard. They aren't a sign of weakness. They're information. The sooner you listen, the easier it is to course-correct, and if symptoms persist, it's always worth talking with your doctor.
What are a few practical habits entrepreneurs can use to protect their energy and health without losing momentum in their business?
The habits that work best are the ones simple enough to keep doing on your busiest days. Protect your sleep window. Choose a consistent bedtime and wake time, and treat them like an important meeting. Consistency matters as much as the number of hours.
Start your day before you start your inbox. Even ten minutes of movement, sunlight, or quiet before you check email sets the tone for the whole day.
Schedule recovery, not just work. Put short breaks on your calendar between calls. A five-minute walk or a few slow breaths can reset your focus far better than another cup of coffee.
Eat for energy, not just convenience. Keep simple, protein-rich options on hand, so you're not running on sugar and caffeine by mid-afternoon.
Finally, have a hard stop. Decide when your workday ends and honor it most days. Momentum in business doesn't come from working every hour. It comes from showing up clear-headed and consistent, day after day, for years.
How has turning your experience with epilepsy into advocacy changed your definition of strength?
For most of my life, I thought strength meant no one could see you struggle. So I hid. I hid the diagnosis. I hid the hard days. I smiled through the fear that something might happen at the worst possible moment. Then it did. I had a seizure at work, and I lost my job.
That loss hit me hard. It wasn't just a job. It felt like proof of everything I had been afraid of. I had two choices: keep hiding, or tell the truth and use it to help someone else.
I chose the truth. That path eventually led me to testify before Congress, sharing my story out loud in a room where decisions are made that affect millions of lives.
That's when my definition of strength changed. Strength isn't the absence of struggle. It's the courage to be seen in it. Every time I share my story, someone reaches out and says, "Me too." In that moment, neither of us is alone anymore.
What is the one health principle you hope ambitious readers carry with them as they build the next stage of their careers?
Your health is not something you'll get to after you succeed. It's what makes success possible. I know how easy it is to put yourself last. To promise you'll rest after the launch, after the deadline, after the next big goal. I told myself that story for years. But your body always tells the truth, and eventually, it insists that you listen.
So here is what I hope you carry with you. You don't have to earn the right to take care of yourself. You are not less ambitious because you rest. You are not weaker because you need support. Protecting your health isn't stepping back from your dreams. It's how you make sure you're still standing when they come true.
Protect your sleep. Listen to the quiet warning signs. Build small habits you can keep for years. If you'd like more practical, expert-backed strategies, I'd love for you to listen to The Advisor with Stacey Chillemi, follow my health column here on Brainz Magazine, and visit here to learn more about my work.
Read more from Stacey Chillemi
